OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE FAQ
alt.out-of-body
Frequently Asked Questions
Written and maintained by Jouni A. Smed,
(jounsmed@utu.fi). August, 1994.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Acknowledgement
This FAQ would not have come into being without the aid of Gary S.
Trujillo. In particular his proofreading and suggestions have been
invaluable.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Contents of OBE-FAQ:
Introduction[1]
What is an out-of-the-body experience?[2]
What are ESP, PK and psi?[3]
What theories have been put forward to account for the OBE?[4]
What is an astral projection?[5]
Is astral projection an adequate explanation?[6]
What is animism?[7]
Can the OBEer be seen as an apparition?[8]
How can one find out what an OBE is like?[9]
What is an average astral projection like?[10]
What is an average OBE like?[11]
How common are OBEs?[12]
What are the prerequisites for inducing an OBE?[13]
How to induce an OBE?[14]
Imagery Techniques[15]
Inducing a Special Motivation to Leave the Body[16]
Ophiel's 'Little System'[17]
The Christos Technique[18]
Robert Monroe's Method[19]
Ritual Magic Methods[20]
Meditation and Chakra Meditation[21]
Hypnosis[22]
Drugs[23]
Dream Development[24]
Palmer's Experimental Method[25]
What are lucid dreams?[26]
What is the physiology of dreams and lucid dreams?[27]
What is the physiology of OBEs?[28]
What are near-death experiences and are they some kind of OBEs?[29]
Is the OBE some kind of mental illness?[30]
Are people who have greater imagery skills more likely to have OBEs?[31]
Are OBEs some kind of hallucination?[32]
What are the features of OB vision?[33]
How can the OBE be explained?[34]
Something Leaves the Body[35]
Physical Theories[36]
Physical Astral World Theory[37]
Mental Astral World Theory[38]
Nothing Leaves the Body[39]
Parapsychological Theory[40]
Psychological Theories[41]
Other approaches[42]
Out-of-Body Tools[43]
References[44]
___________________________________
Introduction
Much of the discussion of out-of-body experiences has centered around the
recounting of experiences and speculation on the nature of those
experiences. Some articles have questioned whether the experiences are of
an hallucinatory nature or purely a function of biochemical processes that
occur in the brain, and, at the other extreme, some have linked them with
notions of the existence of an immortal soul and other ideas generally
associated with religious interpretations of human existence. Most readers
are intrigued by the thought of being able to have and control OBEs, and see
them as a potentially interesting experience, though some smaller number of
people taking part in discussions are interested in trying to figure out
their nature and function and their possible implications for the
understanding of what it means to be fully human.
What is an out-of-the-body experience?
Out-of-body-experiences (OBEs) are those curious, and usually brief
experiences in which a person's consciousness seems to depart from his or
her body, enabling observation of the world from a point of view other than
that of the physical body and by means other than those of the physical
senses. Thus, an out-of-the-body experience can initially be defined as 'an
experience in which a person seems to perceive the world from a location
outside his physical body' [Bla82]. In some cases experients claim that
they 'saw' and 'heard' things (objects which were really there, events and
conversations which really took place) which could not have seen or heard
from the actual positions of their bodies.
OBEs are surprisingly common; different surveys have yielded somewhat
different results, but some estimates indicate that somewhere between one
person in ten and one person in twenty is likely to have had such an
experience at least once. Furthermore it seems that OBEs can occur to
anyone in almost any circumstances. Researchers have approached the
question of the timing of OBEs by asking people who claim to have had OBEs
to describe when they happened. In one of these, over 85 percent of those
surveyed said they had had OBEs while they were resting, sleeping or
dreaming [Bla84]. Other surveys also show that the majority of OBEs occur
when people are in bed, ill, or resting, with a smaller percentage coming
while the person is drugged or medicated [Gre68a, Poy75]. But they can
occur during almost any kind of activity. Green cites a couple of cases in
which motor-cyclists, riding at speed, suddenly found themselves floating
above their machines looking down on their own bodies still driving along.
Accidents did not ensue. Pilots of high-flying airplanes (perhaps affected
by absence of vibration, and uniformity of sensory stimulation) have
similarly found themselves apparently outside their aircraft struggling to
get in. One might well struggle frantically under such circumstances.
More curious still are reciprocal cases of OBE and apparition: the OBE
subject, aware that he is operating in some kind of duplicate body, travels
to a distant location where he sees a person and is aware of being seen by
that person; this person confirms that he saw an apparition of the OBEer at
the time that the OBEer claimed to be in his presence. Thus the two
experiences corroborate each other.
Not all OBEs occur spontaneously. Using various techniques, some people
have apparently cultivated the faculty of inducing them more or less as
desired, and a number have written detailed accounts of their experiences.
These accounts do not always in all respects square with accounts given by
persons who have undergone spontaneous OBEs. For instance the great
majority of those who experience OBEs voluntarily state that they find
themselves still embodied, but in a body whose shape, external
characteristics, and spatial location are easily altered at will, and an
appreciable number refer to an elastic 'silver cord' joining their new body
to their old one. A much smaller percentage of those who undergo
spontaneous OBEs mention being embodied, and some specifically state that
they found themselves disembodied. The 'silver cord' is quite rarely
mentioned. It is hard to avoid suspecting that many features of self-
induced OBEs are determined by the subject's reading and his antecedent
expectations.
Common aspects of the experience include being in an 'out-of-body' body much
like the physical one, feeling a sense of energy, feeling vibrations, and
hearing strange loud noises [GT84]. Sometimes a sensation of bodily
paralysis precedes the OBE [Sal82, Irw88, MC29, Fox62]. OBEs, especially
spontaneous ones, are often very vivid, and resemble everyday waking
experiences rather than dreams, and they may make a considerable impression
on those who undergo them. Such persons may find it hard to believe that
they did not in fact leave their bodies, and they may draw the conclusion
that we possess a separable soul, perhaps linked to a second body, which
will survive in a state of full consciousness, perhaps even of enhanced
consciousness, after death. Death would be, as it were, an OBE in which one
did not succeed in getting back into one's body.
Such conclusions present themselves even more forcefully to the minds of
those who have undergone a 'near-death experience' (NDE). It is not
uncommon for persons who have been to the brink of death and returned --
following, say, a heart stoppage or serious injuries from an accident -- to
report an experience (commonly of a great vividness and impressiveness) as
of leaving their bodies, and traveling (often in a duplicate body) to the
border of a new and wonderful realm. Reports suggest that the conscious
self's awareness outside the body is not only unimpaired but enhanced:
events which occurred during the period of unconsciousness are described in
accurate detail and confirmed by those present. The subject sometimes
'hears' the doctor pronouncing him dead when he feels intensely alive and
free from physical pain, and finds himself returning unwillingly to the
constrictions of the physical body. If OBEs show the capacity of the
conscious self to have experiences and perceptions outside the physical
body, near-death experiences seem to suggest that this capacity still
obtains when the physical body is totally unconscious.
The idea that we all have a double seems to spring naturally out of that of
the OBE. If you seem to be leaving your physical body and observing things
from outside it then it seems natural to assume that, at least temporarily,
you had a double. It also seems obvious that this double could see, hear,
think and move. This interpretation is not necessarily valid. As Palmer
has so carefully pointed out [Pal78a] the experience of being out of the
body is not equivalent to the fact of being out.
According to the English psychologist Susan Blackmore the definition of the
OBE as an experience may not be a perfect definition but one of its major
advantages is that it does not imply any particular interpretation of the
OBE. The consequences of this definition are important. First, since the
OBE is an experience, then if someone says he has had an OBE we have to
believe him. Conceivably in the future we might find ways of measuring, or
establishing external criteria for, the OBE, but at the moment we can only
take a person's word for it. Another related consequence is that the OBE is
not some kind of psychic phenomenon. As Palmer has explained, 'the OBE is
neither potentially nor actually a psychic phenomenon.' This view is a
natural consequence of any experiential definition. A private experience
can take any form you like. This experience may turn out to be one
associated with ESP and paranormal events, but it may not.
What are ESP, PK and psi?
'Extrasensory perception' (ESP) is a term coined by Dr. J. B. Rhine of Duke
University. It covers any instance of the apparent acquisition of non-
inferential knowledge of matters of fact without the use of the known sense
organs. ESP is usually said to have three varieties: 'telepathy,' in which
the knowledge is of events in another person's mind, 'clairvoyance,' in
which the knowledge is of physical objects or states of affairs; and
'precognition' (telepathic or clairvoyant), where the knowledge relates to
happenings still in the future. The word 'knowledge' is, however, not
entirely appropriate, for there may be telepathic or clairvoyant
'interaction,' in which a person's mental state or actions may be
influenced by an external state of affairs, though he does not 'know' or
'cognize' it.
Another American term is 'psychokinesis' (PK), the direct influence of
mental events on physical events external to the agent's body. 'Psi' (from
the Greek letter) is 'a general term to identify personal factors or
processes in nature which transcend accepted laws' [Gay74]. It is
sometimes used to cover both ESP and PK.
What theories have been put forward to account for the OBE?
The notion of the human double has a long and colorful history. Plato gave
us an early idea. He believed that what we see in this life is only a dim
reflection of what the spirit could see if it were released from the
physical. Imprisoned in a gross physical body, the spirit is restricted;
separated from that body, it would be able to converse freely with the
spirits of the departed, and see things more clearly. Another idea which
can be traced to the Greeks is that we have second body. The spirit or some
subtle body would be able to see better without its body. Aristotle taught
that the spirit could leave the body and that it is capable of communicating
with the spirits, while Plotinus held that all souls must be separable from
their physical bodies. This 'doctrine of the subtle body' runs through
Western tradition.
Homer regarded man as a composite being comprising three distinct entities,
namely the body (soma), the 'psyche,' and the thumos; this last term is
untranslatable, but is always closely associated with the diaphragm/midriff
(phrenes), which was considered to be the seat of the will and feeling,
perhaps even of the intellect. At this stage (800 - 750 BC) the term psyche
had not come to mean personal soul, but rather it represented the impersonal
life-principle which dwells in the body but which is unrelated to the
intellect and the emotions. A fourth component, the 'image' ('eidolon'),
might also be included in human make-up; it was this aspect of self which
acted and appeared in dreams, where it was considered as a real figure.
Dionysus' early followers in Thrace reenacted his death and resurrection in
a gruesome ceremony, where they tore a live bull to pieces with their teeth,
and then roamed about the woods shouting frantically. Later rituals were
hardly less barbaric and frenzied; all were calculated to induce a stage of
religious madness or mania. They took place at night to the accompaniment
of loud music and cymbals, thus exciting the chorus of worshippers who soon
joined in with shouts of their own. Dancing was so violent that no breath
was left for singing, and eventually the worshippers induced through their
excesses a state of such exaltation and rapture that it seemed to them that
the ordinary limits of life had been transcended, that they were
'possessed,' their soul having temporarily left the body. The soul was in a
condition of enthousiasmos (inside the god) and ekstasis (outside the body);
liberated from the confines of the body it enjoyed communion with the god.
Perhaps the most pervasive idea relating to other bodies is that on death we
leave our physical body and take on some subtler or higher form. This
notion has roots not only in Greek thought and in much of later philosophy,
but also in many religious teachings. Some Eastern religions include
specific doctrines on the forms and abilities of other bodies and the nature
of other worlds; and in Christianity there are references to a spiritual
body. Some religious works can be seen as preparing the soul for its
transition at death.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead, or Bardo Thodol (meaning Liberation by Hearing
on the After-Death Plane) was first committed to writing in the eighth
century AD, although the editor, Dr W. Y. Evans-Wentz, has no doubt that it
represents 'the record of belief of innumerable generations in a state of
existence after death.' It is thought that its teachings were initially
handed down orally, then finally compiled and recorded by a number of
authors. The book is used as a funeral ritual, and is read out as a guide
to the recently deceased. It contains an elaborate description of the
moment of death, the stages of mind experienced by the deceased at various
stages of post-mortem existence, and the path to liberation or rebirth, as
the case may be.
The Bardo body, also referred to as the desire- or propensity-body, is
formed of matter in an invisible and etheral-like state and is, in this
tradition, believed to be an exact duplicate of the human body, from which
it is separated in the process of death. Retained in the Bardo body are the
consciousness-principle and the psychic nervous system (the counterpart, for
the psychic or Bardo body, of the physical nervous system of the human body)
[Eva60]. Due to its nature, the Bardo body is able to pass through matter,
which is only solid and impenetrable to the senses, but not to the
instruments of modern physics; and the fact that the conscious self is not
embedded in matter enables it to travel instantly where it desires. Flights
of the imagination become objectively real, the wish comes true.
In his introductions to The Egyptian Book of the Dead -- called in the
language of that people 'Pert Em Hru' ('Emerging by Day') -- Wallis Budge
points out that its chapters 'are a mirror in which are reflected most of
the beliefs of the various races which went to build up the Egyptians of
history.' As all commentators have hastened to indicate, the Book of the
Dead is not a unity but a collection of chapters of varying lengths and
dating from different ages. A selection of these would be made for the
deceased, and would be copied on the walls of the tomb or inscribed on the
sides of the sarcophagi; or they might even be written on scrolls of papyri
which were then laid within the folds of the bodycloths. The extracts meant
to benefit the deceased in a variety of ways.
In the Egyptian Book of the Dead the perishable physical body, preservable
only by mummification, is called the khat. Next comes the ka, which is
generally translated as 'double,' and is defined by Wallis Budge as 'an
abstract individuality or personality which possessed the form and
attributes of the man to whom it belonged, and, though its normal dwelling
place was in the tomb with the body, it could wander about at will; it was
independent of the man and could go and dwell in any statue of him.'
The ba, or heart-soul, is depicted as a bird and is often translated as
'soul.' It is sometimes conceived of as an animating principle within the
body, but elsewhere it is hinted that one only becomes a ba after death,
when it either dwells with the ka in the tomb or with Ra or Osiris in
heaven. The ba is often referred to in connection with the spiritual soul
(khu), which was regarded as imperishable and existed in the spiritual body
(sahu). The sahu was originally considered to be a more material body, and
may have formed a part of an early and literal view of the resurrection,
whereby the sahu, ba, ka, khaibit (shadow) and ikhu (vital force) all came
together again after 3,000 years, and the man was reanimated. Gradually the
sahu came to be regarded as more spiritual in its compositions, and the idea
of physical resurrection lost its prominence. It was believed that this
sahu was germinated from the physical body, provided that it was not
corrupt, and that the appropriate ceremonies had been performed by the
priests.
The Egyptians agree with the Primitives and the Tibetans in asserting a form
of continued existence after physical death. Their notions are less
psychologically consistent and subtle than those of the Tibetans, but much
more complex and symbolically developed than those of the Primitives, whom
they resemble only in the earliest stages of their civilisation. Their
unique features center round the overwhelming dread of physical corruption
and corresponding longing for the germination of the indestructible sahu in
which the khu will exist 'for millions and millions of years.'
One of the directly relevant ideas derives from the teachings of Theosophy.
Within a scheme involving several planes and several bodies, the OBE is
interpreted as a projection of the 'astral body' from the physical body.
Theosophical ideas have influenced the thinking and terminology of many OBE
researchers since many people reporting OBEs have found terms like 'astral
projection' which derive from Theosophy to be useful in describing their
experiences. Other researchers, however, find such terminology and the
model it has been devised to describe to be unnecessarily biased in favor of
a certain 'esoteric' interpretation of the actual experiences.
The idea that we have a double also appears in popular mythology. Often
these doubles have sinister overtones, or are associated with the darker
side of the psyche, but usually they are supposed to be quite harmless.
These phenomena seem to be related to the OBE in that they involve a double,
but there the resemblance ends.
Dean Sheils [She78] compared the beliefs of over 60 different cultures by
referring to special files kept for anthropological research. Of 54
cultures for which some information was reported, 25 (or 46%) claimed that
most or all people could travel outside the physical body under certain
conditions. A further 23 (or 43%) claimed that a few of their number were
able to do so, and only three cultures expressed no belief in anything of
this nature. In a further three cultures the possibility of OBEs was
admitted but the proportion of people who could experience it was not given.
From this evidence, we can conclude that some form of a belief in
out-of-body experiences is very common in various cultures.
Apparently, as many cultures interpret dreams as OBEs as those which do not.
The notion that one may induce an OBE deliberately is not entirely absent
from the cultures included by Sheils, though it is usually confined to
certain types of people. Often only shamans can achieve OBEs, sometimes by
using special drugs or methods for inducing a trance. Of those cultures
described by Sheils, there were several in which there was a common belief
that the soul could travel in earthly places, while in others the general
belief was that the soul could only move in the world of the dead or
spirits, and in others both kinds of soul travel were accepted.
There are stories of bilocation in which the physical body exists and acts
in two separate places at once. But physical effects in OBE are rare. Also
related to OBEs are the phenomena of traveling clairvoyance, ESP projection
and remote viewing. 'Traveling clairvoyance' was used to describe a form of
clairvoyance in which a medium or sensitive seemed to observe a distant
place, therefore it included both OBEs and experiences in which the
clairvoyant 'perceived' the distant scene but without any experience of
leaving the body. In both 'traveling clairvoyance' and 'ESP projection' the
occurrence of ESP is presupposed, but the experience of leaving the body is
not. Remote viewing is a recent and better-defined term. Typically a
subject describes or draws his impressions while an 'outbound experimenter'
visits randomly selected remote locations. Later the descriptions and the
locations are matched up. Remote viewing has often been compared with OBEs,
and sometimes subjects who can have OBEs are used in remote viewing
experiments.
Many people have argued that the OBE itself is some kind of dream and
involves no double other than an imaginary one. However, an ordinary dream
does not have those important features of the experient seeming to leave the
body and being conscious of perceiving things as they occur. In this sense
OBEs are better compared with lucid dreams, which are dreams in which the
sleeper realizes, at the time, that he or she is dreaming. In such an
experience, the sleeper may become perfectly conscious in the dream, which
makes the experience very much like an OBE.
The experience of seeing one's own double has been called 'autoscopy' or
'autoscopic hallucinations.' Here again the double is not the 'real' or
conscious person. It is seen as another self, but the original self still
appears the most real. In the OBE it is the 'other' which seems most alive.
It has been argued that the OBE is an hallucination, and any other body or
double is likewise hallucinatory. There are in fact many similarities
between some kinds of hallucinations and OBEs.
Among other experiences difficult to disentangle from OBEs are a variety of
religious and transcendental experiences. People may feel that they have
grown very large or very small, becoming one with the Universe or God.
Everything is seen in a new perspective, and may seem 'real' for the very
first time. It is difficult to draw a line between a religious experience
and an OBE and any line one does draw may seem artificial or arbitrary.
What is an astral projection?
Superficially, the idea of having a double may seem to explain the OBE.
However, as soon as this idea is pursued, problems become obvious and the
system has to get more complicated to deal with those problems. One of the
most complex, and certainly the most influential, of such systems is the
theory of astral projection, based on the teachings of theosophy. In 1875
Madame Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society in New York, to study
Eastern religions and science. From her teachings, brought back from her
travels in India and elsewhere, a complex scheme evolved. According to the
Theosophists, man is not just the product of his physical body, but is
instead thought to be a complex creature consisting of many bodies, each
finer and more subtle than the one 'below' it. These bodies should be
thought of as an outer garment which can be thrown off to reveal the true
man within.
Although there are variations in the details, it is commonly claimed that
there are seven great planes and seven corresponding bodies or vehicles. The
grossest of all is the physical body, of flesh, with which we are all
familiar. There is supposed to be another body also described as physical
known as the 'etheric double,' or 'vehicle of vitality.' Etheric double is
the manifestation of physical vitality. It is constant and does not change
throughout the cycles of life and death, but it is not eternal, for it is
eventually re-absorbed into the elements of which it is composed. This
'double' acts as a kind of transmitter of energy, keeping the lower
physical body in contact with the higher bodies. Etheric substance is seen
as an extension of the physical.
Next up the scale is supposed to be the 'astral world' and its associated
'astral body', or the 'vehicle of consciousness'. These entities are thought
to be finer than their etheric counterparts and correspondingly harder to
see. Astral body is thought to be 'a replica of the physical body (the
gross body), but of a more subtle and tenous substance, penetrating every
nerve, fibre and cell of the physical organism, and constantly in a
supersensitive state of vibration and pulsation' [Gay74].
The astral world consists of astral matter, and all physical objects have a
replica in the astral. There is therefore a complete physical copy of
everything in the astral world, but in addition there are things in the
astral which have no counterpart in the physical. There are thought forms
created by human thought, elementals and the lowest of the dead, who have
gone no further since they left the physical world. All these entities and
many others are used in ritual magic, and thought forms can be specially
created to carry out tasks such as healing, carrying messages, or gaining
information.
In the scheme just described, those who have the ability are supposed to be
able to see the nature of a person's thoughts by changes in the color and
form of the astral body. All around the physical can be seen the bright and
shining colors of the larger astral body, making up the astral aura. The
aura is multi-colored and brilliant, or dull, according to the character or
quality of the person and therefore 'to the seer, the aura of a person is an
index to his hidden propensities' [Gay74].
All these conceptions are of special relevance because of the fact that the
astral body is supposed to be able to separate from the physical and travel
without it. Since the astral is the vehicle of consciousness, it is this
body which is aware, not the physical. It is said that in sleep the astral
body leaves the sleeping body. In the undeveloped person, little memory is
retained and the astral body is vague and its travels are limited and
directionless, but in the trained person the astral can be controlled, can
travel great distances in sleep, and can even be projected from the physical
body at will. It is this which is called astral projection.
In astral projection the consciousness can travel almost without limitation,
but it travels in the astral world. It therefore sees not the physical
objects, but their astral counterparts, and in addition the beings that live
in the astral realms. The astral world has been known as the 'world of
illusion' or world of thoughts. The unwary traveler can become confused by
the power of his own imaginings. In this state one can appear, as an
apparition to anyone who has 'astral sight.' Indeed one can appear to other
too, but to do so requires some involvement of lower matter, for example of
etheric matter, as in ectoplasm. Ectoplasm is considered to be the
materialization of the astral body and is described as 'matter which is
invisible and impalpable in its primary state, but assuming the state of a
vapour, liquid or solid, according to its stage of condensation' [Gay74].
An aspect of astral traveling which has become important in later writings,
though it appears little in early theosophy, is the silver cord. It is held
that in life the astral body is connected to its physical body by an
infinitely elastic but strong cord, of a flowing and delicate silver color.
Traditionally the cord must remain connected or death will ensue. As one
approaches death, the astral gradually loosens itself, lifts up above the
physical, and then the cord breaks to allow the higher bodies to leave.
Death is thus seen as a form of permanent astral projection.
Beyond the astral Theosophy distinguishes a further five levels. These
include the mental or devachnic world, the buddhic, the nirvanic, and two
others so far beyond our understanding that they are rarely described. The
task of every person is to progress through all of these.
Is astral projection an adequate explanation?
Many investigators are convinced of the reality of astral projection. Among
the best known are Muldoon and Carrington, and Crookall. Sylvan Muldoon
claimed to be able to project at will and described his experiences in The
Projection of the Astral Body [MC29] written in collaboration with the
psychical researcher Hereward Carrington. Together these two collected many
cases of spontaneous OBEs which they amassed as support for the reality of
astral projection. Many years later Robert Crookall [Cro61-78], in more
systematic fashion, did much the same thing. Many of the people who report
OBEs have found the notion of astral projection helpful, and describe their
experiences in these terms.
There are several serious problems with the theory of astral projection, as
pointed out by Susan Blackmore [Bla82]. The first is that many OBEs simply
do not fit well into the astral projection framework. Celia Green [Gre68a]
has collected many cases in which the person describes no astral body,
indeed no other body at all. Also very few people actually report any cord,
let alone the traditional silver cord.
Of course this type of experience can be fitted in by saying that the
experient's astral vision was clouded, or the astral body or cord too fine
to be seen, but these methods of attempting to account for actual experience
begin to weaken the theory. Blackmore criticizes the complexity of the
theory of astral projection as it tries to account for new facts. And this
relates to the second problem, its 'stretchability.' In her opinion the
theory is so complicated and flexible that almost anything can be stretched
to fit it and it makes hard to draw definite predictions from the theory.
If you don't see the features you should, your astral vision is not clear
enough, or memory was not passed on from higher levels. If you fail to make
yourself visible to someone else then not enough etheric matter was involved
and so on. In this way the 'theory' is in danger of explaining everything
and nothing. Furthermore, any theory which is untestable is useless in
scientific terms.
What is animism?
A school of thought has grown up within parapsychology, and around its
fringes, which takes very seriously the idea of death being an OBE in which
one did not succeed in getting back into one's body. Gauld [Gau82] refers
to this school of thought as the 'animistic' school (anima = soul),
'animism' being the view that every human mind, whether in its before death
or after death state 'is essentially and inseparably bound up with some kind
of extended quasi-physical vehicle, which is not normally perceptible to the
senses of human beings in their present life' [Bro62]. An argument which
one commonly hears from members of the animistic school runs as follows:
OBEs and near-death experiences are, so far as we can tell, universal. They
have been reported from many different parts of the world and in many
different historical eras. The experiences of the persons concerned
therefore must reflect genuine features of the human constitution; for we
cannot possibly suppose that they derive from a common stream of religious
tradition or folk-belief -- the societies from which they have been reported
are too widely separated in space and time for the common-origin idea to be
a serious possibility.
The most powerful shot in the the animist's locker remains, however, still
to be mentioned. There are some cases -- by no means a negligible number --
in which a person who is undergoing an OBE, and finds himself at or
'projects' himself to a particular spot distant from his physical body, has
been seen at that very spot by some person present there. Such cases are
generally known as 'reciprocal' cases. Thus the animist, starting from his
study of OBEs and NDEs, claims to have direct evidence that after death we
remain the conscious individuals that we always have been and that the
'vehicle' of our surviving memories and other psychological dispositions is
a surrogate body whose properties (other perhaps than that of being
malleable by thought) are, he would admit, largely unknown.
In addition to taking OBEs and NDEs as themselves evidence for survival, the
animist might well feel able to offer the following argument in support of
regarding a further class of phenomena as evidence for survival of
consciousness following physical death. There is in the literature on
apparitions a substantial sprinkling of cases of apparitions of deceased
persons, some of which have been seen by witnesses who did not know the
deceased in life. An extensive statistical investigation by the late
professor Hornell Hart [Har56] strongly suggests that apparitions of the
dead and the phantasms of living 'projectors' in reciprocal cases are, as
classes, indistinguishable from each other in what may be called their
'external characteristics' -- such as whether the figure was solid, dressed
in ordinary clothes, seen by more than one person, whether it spoke,
adjusted itself to its physical surroundings, etc. Now we know that in
reciprocal cases the phantasms of the projector is in some sense a center of
or a vehicle of consciousness, namely the consciousness of the projector.
Since apparitions of the dead and of living projectors manifestly belong to
the same class of objects or events, we may properly infer that since the
apparitions of living projectors are vehicles for the consciousness of the
person in question, this must be true of apparitions of the dead also.
Hence the consciousness of deceased persons survives and may either have, or
make use of, a kind of body.
Can the OBEer be seen as an apparition?
The study of apparitions formed an important part of early physical
research, and many different types of apparition have been recorded, but the
ones which primarily interest us here are those in which a person having an
OBE simultaneously appeared to someone else as an apparition. There are many
cases of this kind in the early literature and they have been quoted again
and again but a relatively small number of them really form the mainstay of
the anecdotal evidence on OBE apparitions. Crookall [Cro61] and Smith
[Smi65] give some recent cases but they too concentrate on the older ones.
Green [Gre68a] discusses the similarities between apparitions in general and
the asomatic body perceived by OBEers, but she does not give any examples
from her own case collection in which another person saw the exteriorized
double. By contrast, about 10% of Palmer's OBEers claimed to have been seen
as an apparition [Pal79b] and Osis claims that from his survey OBEers
'frequently' said they were noticed by others and in 16 cases (6% of the
total) he was able to obtain some verification through witnesses, although
he does not expand on this remark. Obviously it would be very helpful if
much more evidence of this sort could be collected, and recent cases
thoroughly checked.
How can one find out what an OBE is like?
One of the easiest ways to find out what OBE is like is to collect a large
number of accounts of cases and compare them. In this way any common
features can be extricated and variations noted. A great deal can be
learned about the conditions under which the experiences occurred, how long
they lasted, and what they were like. Accounts by people who have had OBEs
fall, roughly speaking, into two categories. There are the many ordinary
people to whom an OBE occurs just once, or a few times; and there is a small
number of people who claim to be able to project at will.
The limitations of this method are that there are many important questions
which cannot be answered by collecting cases. Since the people voluntarily
report their experiences, the sample necessarily ends up with a bias. Many
accounts are given many years or even decades after the event and it is then
impossible to determine how much of the story has altered in memory with the
passage of time. For such reasons it is not possible to determine, for
example, how common the the experience actually is. Second, many OBEers
claim that they were able to see rooms into which they had never been,
describe accurately people they had never met, or move physical objects
during their experience. Such reports are of great interest to
parapsychology but they cannot be tested by collecting cases.
What is an average astral projection like?
Accounts of OBEs have been collected since the beginning of psychical
research. The first collection of cases of spontaneous apparitions,
telepathy, and clairvoyance published in 1886 as 'Phantasms of the Living'
[GMF86]. Frederic Myers also collected similar cases for his 'Human
Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death' [Mye03].
The first major collection was made by Muldoon and Carrington and published
in 1951 [MC51]. Nearly a hundred accounts were categorized according to
whether they were produced by drugs or anaesthetics, occurred at the time of
accident, death or illness, or were set off by suppressed desire. Finally
they gave cases in which spirits seemed to be involved. By categorizing the
cases in this way, Muldoon and Carrington were able to compare and interpret
them in the light of their theories of astral projection, but they did not
go beyond this rather simple analysis. These researchers implied that we do
have a double, and that it is capable of perceiving at a distance and even
of surviving without the physical body.
The largest collections of accounts of astral projection have been amassed
by Robert Crookall. In his many books [Cro61, 64a] he has presented
hundreds of cases which show the kinds of consistencies as Muldoon and
Carrington found. He also divided the cases according to how they were
brought about. First there were the 'natural' ones which included those
people who nearly died or were very ill or exhausted, as well as those who
were quite well. Contrasted with these were the 'enforced' cases, being
induced by anaesthetics, suffocation and falling, or deliberately by
hypnosis.
Typical features of Crookall's accounts were the mysterious light
illuminating the darkness, the white double, the ability to travel at will
and inability to affect material objects. Crookall cited typical elements
of the natural projection being the cord joining the two bodies, feelings of
peace and happiness and the clarity of mind and 'realness' of everything
seen. By contrast with what Crookall calls 'the enforced' OBE, by which he
means one which is entered into deliberately by the experient, he argued the
person typically finds himself not in happy and bright surroundings but in a
dream or conditions reminiscent of popular conceptions of 'Hades.'
In projection two aspects can be exteriorized: in natural OBEs the soul body
or the astral body is ejected free of the vehicle of vitality and the vision
of the experient is clear, but when the OBE is the result of a conscious
effort to have an OBE some of the lower vehicle is shed at the same time and
clouds the vision. The same principles apply in death: natural deaths
according to NDE accounts usually lead to an experience of paradisaical
conditions, but the victim of an 'enforced' death is likely to find himself
in Hades with clouded vision and consciousness.
The implication of Crookall's argument is that there is an astral body, a
vehicle of vitality and a silver cord, and that we survive death to live on
a higher plane. He believed that insofar as such a thing could be proved,
the many cases he had collected proved the existence of out other bodies.
What is an average OBE like?
The previous case collections were made by researchers who believed
implicitly in the astral projection interpretation of the OBE. A properly
analyzed case collection can provide a rich source of information about what
the OBE is like. The collections used here include those by Hart, Green,
Poynton and Blackmore and the analysis is made by Blackmore [Bla82].
Hornell Hart, a professor of sociology at Duke University in North Carolina,
collected together cases of what he called 'ESP projection' [Har54]. He
required that the person not only have an OBE, but also acquire veridical
information, as though from the OB location. This excludes many OBEs in
which the information gained was wrong or could not be checked. He also
rated the cases. The best possible case would gain a score of 1.0, but in
fact the highest score given was .90. No higher scores were gained because
the cases show a curious mixture of correct and incorrect vision which seems
to be common in the OBE.
Through this research, one assumption is crucial, that ESP projection is a
single phenomenon which might have any or all of Hart's eight features. Rogo
[Rog78b] and Tart [Tar74a] have both suggested that several different types
of experience may have been lumped together under the label 'OBE.' It could
be that astral projection, traveling clairvoyance, and apparitions are quite
different and need different interpretations, or other distinctions might be
more relevant. The reason Hart gave why the non- evidential cases should be
excluded is far from satisfactory: if there was no evidence of ESP they did
not count in his analysis. Hart was ruling out the majority of cases on the
basis of a very shaky criterion.
Perhaps the most thorough, and certainly the best-known case collection was
carried out by Celia Green of the Institute of Psychophysical Research
[Gre68a]. Her definition of an OBE was an experience, defined as follows,
'... one in which the objects of perception are apparently organized in
such a way that the observer seems to himself to be observing them from a
point of view which is not coincident with his physical body.' J. C. Poynton
[Poy75], like Green, advertised in the press, and circulated a questionnaire
privately, and on the whole Poynton's results, although less detailed, are
similar to Green's. Susan Blackmore [Bla82] has analyzed the cases
collected by the SPR and by herself.
Table: Some Results of Case Collections [Bla82]
Green Poynton SPR cases Blackmore
Proportion of 61% 56% 69% 47%
'single' cases
Some features of 'single' cases:
Saw own body 81% 80% 72% 71%
Had second body 20% 75% -- 57%
Definite sensation 'majority' 25% 36% --
on separation none
Had connecting 4% 9% 8% --
cord
Apparently most people have had only one OBE, but the frequency of subjects
claiming many OBEs is high enough to conclude that if a person has had one
OBE he or she is more likely to have another. Also many people learn to
control their OBEs to some extent, even if they never learn to induce them
reliably at will.
OBEs are occurring in a variety of situations. Green found that 12% of
single cases occurred during sleep, 32% when unconscious, and 25% were
associated with some kind of psychological stress, such as fear, worry, or
overwork. Some cases show that it is possible to have an OBE while the body
continues with complex and co-ordinated activity. However, OBEs are far
more common when the physical body is relaxed and inactive.
Most of Green's cases occurred to people whose physical body was lying down
at the time (75%). A further 18% were sitting and the rest were walking,
standing or were 'indeterminate.' In fact it seemed that muscular
relaxation was an essential part of many people's experience. Just a few
found that their body was paralyzed. A feeling of paralysis was found to be
only rarely a prelude to an OBE.
A difference is found between the 'single' cases and the multiple cases. The
latter tended to have had experiences in childhood, and learned to repeat
them. The single cases tended to occur mostly between the ages of 15 and
35. Poynton found that many more of his cases came from females, but among
the SPR cases there are more males than females. This sort of difference is
most likely to be due to sample differences.
Floating and soaring sensations are certainly common. Poynton also found
that most of his OBEers saw or felt their physical body. On the contrary,
catalepsy rarely occurred. Some subjects mentioned noises or a momentary
blacking out, but this did not seem to be the rule. The majority just
'found themselves' in the ecsomatic state. As for the return, for most it
was as sudden as the departure. An interesting finding by Green was that
more of the subjects who had had many OBEs went through complex processes on
separation and return.
Green separated her cases into those she called 'parasomatic,' involving
another body, and those she termed 'asomatic' in which there was no other
body. Her surprising finding was that 80% of cases were asomatic -- they
had no other body. She asked her subjects whether they had felt any
connection between themselves and their physical bodies. Under a third said
they had, and only 3.5% reported a visible or substantial connection such as
a cord. Poynton's results tell a similar story. There seems to be little
evidence from the case collections to support the usual details of astral
projection.
Green found that on the whole perceptual realism was preserved. Subjects
saw their own bodies and the rooms they traveled in as realistic and solid.
Even when the scene appears to be perfectly normal there may be slight
differences. Some her subjects said that everything looked and felt
exaggerated. The experience is typically in only one or two modalities:
vision and hearing. Green found that 93% of single cases included vision, a
third also had hearing, but the other senses were rarely noted. Another
interesting feature of the OBE world is its lighting. In some mysterious
way the surroundings become lit up with no obvious source of light visible,
or else objects seem to glow with a light of their own.
Perhaps the most important question about the OBE is whether people can see
things they did not know about -- in other words whether they can use ESP in
the course of an OBE. Among Green's subjects, some felt as though they
could have seen anything, but lacked the motivation to test out such an
ability. Another related question is whether subjects in an OBE can affect
objects, or have the power of psychokinesis. On the whole the evidence is
against that possibility.
The last feature which Celia Green found to be common in OBEs is that a
spontaneous OBE can have a profound effect on the person who experiences it.
Sometimes OBEs can be very frightening, sometimes exciting and sometimes
they provide a sense of adventure. Interestingly, Green found that fear was
more common in later, not initial experiences. Pleasant emotions are also
common.
How common are OBEs?
Two surveys have used properly balanced samples drawn from specified
populations. The first was conducted by Palmer and Dennis [PD75, Pal79b].
They chose the inhabitants of Charlottesville, Virginia, a town of some
35,000 people and selected 1,000 of these as their sample. The question on
OBEs was worded as follows: 'Have you ever had an experience in which you
felt that "you" were located "outside of" or "away from" your physical body;
that is the feeling that your consciousness, mind, or center of awareness
was at a different place than your physical body? (If in doubt, please
answer "no".)' To this 25% of students and 14% of the townspeople said
'yes.'
Further data from this survey reveals that no relationship between age and
reported OBEs was found. Palmer found a significant positive relationship
between drug use and OBEs and concluded that this could account for the
higher prevalence of OBEs in students. This relationship receives
confirmation from work by Tart [Tar71]. In a survey of 150 marijuana users
he found that 44% claimed to have OBEs. It seems possible that the use of
this drug facilitate OBEs.
The second survey using a properly constructed sample was carried out by
Erlendur Haraldsson, an Icelandic researcher, and his colleagues [HGRLJ76].
For the survey a questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 1157 persons
between ages of 30 and 70 years. There were 53 questions on various psychic
and psi-related experiences including a translation of Palmer's question.
To this, only 8% of the Icelanders replied yes.
Table: Surveys of the OBE [Bla82]
Author Year Respondents size of N %
sample 'YES' 'YES'
Hart 1954 Sociology students 113 28 25
Sociology students 42 14 33
Green 1966 Southampton University
students 115 22 19
1967 Oxford University
students 380 131 34
Palmer 1975 Charlottesville
Townspeople - - 14
Students - - 25
Tart 1971 Marijuana users 150 66 44
Haraldsson 1977 Icelanders - - 8
Blackmore 1980 Surrey University
students 216 28 13
Bristol University
students 115 16 14
Irwin 1980 Australian students 177 36 20
Bierman &
Blackmore 1980 Amsterdam students 191 34 18
Kohr 1980 Members of Association
for Research and
Enlightenment - - 50
Those vague statements about OBEs being 'common' are now backed up by a
variety of figures. Blackmore gives a personal estimate of the incidence of
OBEs, based on all the available evidence, putting it at around 10%. She
thinks we can say with more conviction that the OBE is a fairly common
experience.
The surveys show that if a person has had one OBE he or she is more likely
to have another. All these figures are far higher than you would expect if
OBEs were distributed at random in the population.
Green went on to compare different groups to see whether they had had
different numbers of OBEs. Her only finding was that OBEers were more
likely to report experiences which they thought could only be attributed to
ESP. Palmer and Kohr found that subjects who reported one type of 'psychic'
or 'psi-related' experience also tended to report others.
Palmer also, like Green, found that many simple variables were irrelevant.
Sex, age, race, birth order, political views, religion, religiosity,
education, occupation and income were all unrelated to OBEs.
Palmer found significant relationships between OBEs and practising
meditation, mystical experiences and, as we have already seen, drug
experiences. Palmer had over 100 people reporting one or more OBEs, and
asked them various questions about the experience. They were asked whether
they had seen their physical body from 'outside' and this was reported for
44% of the experiences and by nearly 60% of the OBEers. Fewer than 20% of
experiences involved 'traveling' and fewer than 30% of OBEers reported it.
Still fewer reported that they had acquired information by ESP while 'out-
of-the-body,' about 14% of people and 5% of experiences, or had appeared as
an apparition to someone else (less than 10% or OBEers). These results
confirm the findings of the case collections: that few OBEs include all the
features of a classical astral projection.
Overall the OBE seemed to have had a highly beneficial effect on its
experiencers. Many claimed their fear of death was reduced, and their
mental health and social relationships improved. Ninety-five per cent said
they would like to have another OBE.
What are the prerequisites for inducing an OBE?
Many of the inducing methods use as a starting point techniques designed to
improve the novice's powers of relaxation, imagery, and concentration. The
ideal state appears to be one of physical relaxation, or even catalepsy,
combined with mental alertness.
One of the easiest ways to relax is to use progressive muscular relaxation.
In outline this technique consists of starting with the muscles of the feet
and ankles and alternately tensing and relaxing them, then going on up the
muscles of the calves and thighs, the torso, arms, neck and face, until all
the muscles have been contracted and relaxed. Done carefully this procedure
leads to fairly deep relaxation within a few minutes, and with practice it
becomes easier.
Relaxation usually leads to state of paralysis or catalepsy. When you go to
sleep, your brain deactivates the mechanism by which you are able to use
your limbs, so that you become incapable of physical activity corresponding
to your dream images when you dream. Quite a few people have found
themselves in this paralysis state as soon as they have gotten up after
sleeping.
The first type of paralysis, known as 'type A,' is a condition encountered
when approaching a deeper layer of consciousness from a light trance state.
The second, type B paralysis, is the reverse of type A, in that it happens
during the return home to physical reality. The first type A 'paralysis'
goes something like this:
"Mmmmmm.... I know I am awake; I can think ..... Mmmmmmm but my
body is asleep ..." (Robert Monroe labelled it Focus 10 consciousness)
"Wait a minute here, there is something going on here, I just
can't seem to...."
"Yes, I can't seem to move my limbs; they seemed to be laden with
lead, why can't I move at all? Hey, what's happening here! (Panic!)"
A typical type B 'paralysis' goes something like this:
"Mmmmm... I am feeling groggy, absolutely. What was that just now,
oh, it must be some dream..."
"Mmmm...... hang on a minute, was that a noise I heard? It must
have come from the door... I need to check it out, could be a
burglar..... but I am so tired... and sleepy..."
"I need to wake up, it could be important.... Hey, I can't seem to
wake up, why are my legs not waking up, why can't my hands respond?"
"PANIC!!! I need to wake up!!! I don't want to die... I need to
exert more will on this... Hey, body, wake up, eyes open, ... WAKE UP!"
"Gosh, NOW, I can move my limbs, I am awake now, body covered with
perspiration, sitting at the edge of the bed, wondering why just now I
simply couldn't wake up..."
"Phew -- Thank goodness, it is finally over. Am I glad to be back
to the familiar physical environment."
However, type A paralysis is the type that should not be resisted; if the
person can allow himself to 'go with the flow,' then some kind of altered
state of consciousness is bound to happen, which is what the person is
hoping to achieve anyway.
Many astral travelers have stressed the importance of clear imagery or
visualization for inducing OBEs and of course imagery training forms an
important part of magical development. Progressive methods of imagery
training are often described in magical and occult books, and helpful
guidance can be found in Conway's occult primer [Con72], and in Brennan's
'Astral doorways' [Bre71]. Most involve starting with regular practice at
visualizing simple geometrical shapes and then progressing to harder tasks
such as imagining complex three-dimensional forms, whole rooms and open
scenery.
Practice 1: Read the description slowly and then try to imagine each stage
as you go along: Imagine an orange. It is resting on a blue plate and you
want to eat it. You dig your nail into the peel and tear some of it away.
You keep pulling on the peel until all of it, and most of the pith, is lying
in a heap on the plate. Now separate the orange into segments, lay them on
the plate as well, and then eat one.
If this task doesn't make your mouth water, and if you cannot feel the juice
which squirts from the orange, and smell its tang then you do not have vivid
or trained imagery. Try it again, the colors should be bright and vivid and
the shapes and forms clear and stable. With practice at this and similar
tasks your imagery will improve until you may wonder how it could ever have
been so poor.
Practice 2: This is a rather harder one: Visualize a disc, half white and
half black. Next imagine it spinning about its center, speeding up and then
slowing down, and stopping. Next imagine the same disc in red, but as it
spins it changes through orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. Finally you
may care to try two discs side by side spinning in opposite directions and
changing color in opposition too.
Other useful skills are concentration and control. Not only do you need to
be able to produce vivid imagery, but also to abolish all imagery from your
mind, to hold images as long as you want and to change them as you want,
both quickly and slowly.
Practice 3: Brennan suggests trying to count, and only to count. The
instant another thought comes to mind you must stop and go back to the
beginning. If you get to about four or five you are doing well, but you are
almost certain to be stopped by such thoughts as 'this is easy, I've got to
three already,' or 'I wonder how long I have to go on.'
All these skills, relaxation, imagery and concentration, are suggested again
and again as necessary for inducing an OBE at will. Other aids include
posture. If you lie down you might fall asleep, although Muldoon [MC29]
advocates this position. On the other hand discomfort will undoubtedly
interfere with the attempt. Therefore an alert, but comfortable posture is
best. Some have suggested that it is best not to eat for some hours before
and to avoid any stress, irritation or negative emotions.
How to induce an OBE?
IMAGERY TECHNIQUES
It is possible to use imagery alone but it requires considerable sk
ill.
a) Lie on your back in a comfortable position and relax. Imagine t
hat you are floating up off the bed. Hold that position, slightly li
fted, for some time until you lose all sensation of touching the bed
or floor. Once this state is achieved move slowly into an upright po
sition and begin to travel away from your body and around the room.
Pay attention to the objects and details of the room. Only when you
have gained some proficiency should you try to turn round and look at
your own body. Note that each stage may take months of practice and
it can be too difficult for any but a practiced OBEer.
b) In any comfortable position close your eyes and imagine that the
re is a duplicate of yourself standing in front of you. You will fin
d that it is very hard to imagine your own face, so it is easier to i
magine this double with its back to you. You should try to observe a
ll the details of its posture, dress (if any) and so on. As this ima
ginary double becomes more and more solid and realistic you may exper
ience some uncertainty about your physical position. You can encoura
ge this feeling by comtemplating the question 'Where am I?', or even
other similar questions 'Who am I?' and so on. Once the double is cl
ear and stable and you are relaxed, transfer your consciousness into
it. You should then be able to 'project' in this phantom created by
your own imagination. Again, each stage may take long practice.
INDUCING A SPECIAL MOTIVATION TO LEAVE THE BODY
You can trick yourself into leaving your body according to Muldoon
and Carrington [MC29]. They suggested that if the subconscious desir
es something strongly enough it will try to provoke the body into mov
ing to get it, but if the physical body is immobilized, for example i
n sleep, then the astral body may move instead. Many motivations mig
ht be used but Muldoon advised against using the desire for sexual ac
tivity which is distracting, or the harmful wish for revenge or hurt
to anyone. Instead he advocated using the simple and natural desire
for water -- thirst. This has the advantages this it is quick to ind
uce, and it must be appeased.
In order to employ this technique, you must refrain from drinking f
or some hours before going to bed. During the day increase your thir
st by every means you can. Have a glass of water by you and stare in
to it, imagining drinking, but not allowing yourself to do so. Then
before you retire to bed eat 'about an eighth of a teaspoonful' of sa
lt. Place the glass of water at some convenient place away from your
bed and rehearse in your all the actions necessary to getting it, ge
tting up, crossing the room, reaching out for it, and so on. You mus
t then go to bed, still thinking about your thirst and the means of s
atisfying it. The body must become incapacitated and so you should r
elax, with slow breathing and heart rate and then try to sleep. With
any luck the suggestions you have made to yourself will bring about
the desired OBE. This is not one of the most pleasant or effective m
ethods.
OPHIEL'S 'LITTLE SYSTEM'
Ophiel [Oph61] suggests that you pick a familiar route, perhaps bet
ween two rooms in your house, and memorize every detail of it. Choos
e at least six points along it and spend several minutes each day loo
king at each one and memorizing it. Symbols, scents and sounds assoc
iated with the points can reinforce the image. Once you have committ
ed the route and all the points to memory you should lie down and rel
ax while you attempt to 'project' to the first point. If the prelimi
nary work has been done well you should be able to move from point to
point and back again. Later you can start the imaginary journey fro
m the chair or bed where your body is, and you can then either observ
e yourself doing the movements, or transfer your consciousness to the
one that is doing the moving. Ophiel describes further possibilitie
s, but essentially if you have mastered the route fully in your imagi
nation you will be able to project along it and with practice to exte
nd the projection.
Ophiel states that starting to move into OBE will produce strange s
ounds. He says that this is because the sense of hearing is not carri
ed over onto the higher planes, and that means that your mind tries t
o recreate some input, and just gets subconscious static. He asserts
that the noises can take any form, including voices, malevolent, eer
ie, and get worse and worse, more and more disturbing, until eventual
ly they peak and then just fade to a constant background hiss while o
ne has OBE. Apparently, his 'final noise' sounded like his water hea
ter blowing up. He says, anyway, to ignore the noises, voice or othe
rwise, as they are only static or subconscious rambling, and do not r
epresent any being in any way, not even the self really.
THE CHRISTOS TECHNIQUE
G. M. Glasking, an Australian journalist, popularized this techniqu
e in several books, starting with Windows of the Mind [Gla74]. Three
people are needed: one as subject, and two to prepare him. The subj
ect lies down comfortably on his back in a warm and darkened room. O
ne helper massages the subject's feet and ankles, quite firmly, even
roughly, while the other take his head. Placing the soft part of his
clenched fist on the subject's forehead he rubs it vigorously for se
veral minutes. This should make the subject's head buzz and hum, and
soon he should begin to feel slightly disorientated. His feet tingl
e and his body may feel light or floaty, or changing shape.
When this stage is reached, the imagery exercises begin. The subje
ct is asked to imagine his feet stretching out and becoming longer by
just an inch or so. When he says he can do this he has to let them
go back to normal and do the same with his head, stretching it out be
yond its normal position. Then, alternating all the time between hea
d and feet, the distance is gradually increased until he can stretch
both out to two feet or more. At this stage it should be possible fo
r him to imagine stretching out both at once, making him very long in
deed, and then to swell up, filling the room like a huge balloon. Al
l this will, of course, be easier for some people than others. It sh
ould be taken at whatever pace is needed until each stage is successf
ul. Some people complete this part in five minutes, some people take
more than fifteen minutes.
Next he is asked to imagine he is outside his own front door. He s
hould describe everything he can see in detail, with the colors, mate
rials of the door and walls, the ground, and the surrounding scenery.
He has then to rise above the house until he can see across the sur
rounding countryside or city. To show him that the scene is all unde
r his control he should be asked to change it from day to night and b
ack again, watching the sun set and rise, and the lights go on or off
. Finally he is asked to fly off, and land wherever he wishes. For
most subjects their imagery has become so vivid by this stage that th
ey land somewhere totally convincing and are easily able to describe
all that they see.
You may wonder how the experience comes to an end, but usually no p
rompting is required; the subject will suddenly announce 'I'm here,'
or 'Oh, I'm back,' and he will usually retain quite a clear recollect
ion of all he said and experienced. But it is a good idea to take a f
ew minutes relaxing and getting back to normal. It is interesting th
at this technique seems to be very effective in disrupting the subjec
t's normal image of his body. It then guides and strengthens his own
imagery while keeping his body calm and relaxed.
ROBERT MONROE'S METHOD
In his book Journeys out of the Body [Mon71] Monroe describes a com
plicated-sounding technique for inducing OBEs. In part it is similar
to other imagination methods, but it starts with induction of the 'v
ibrational state.' Many spontaneous OBEs start with a feeling of sha
king or vibrating, and Monroe deliberately induces this state first.
He suggests you do the following. First lie down in a darkened room
in any comfortable position, but with your head pointing to magnetic
north. Loosen clothing and remove any jewellery or metal objects, b
ut be sure to stay warm. Ensure that you will not be disturbed and ar
e not under any limitation of time. Begin by relaxing and then repea
t to yourself five times, 'I will consciously perceive and remember a
ll that I encounter during this relaxation procedure. I will recall
in detail when I am completely awake only those matters which will be
beneficial to my physical and mental being.' Then begin breathing th
rough your half-open mouth.
The next step involves entering the state bordering sleep (the hypn
agogic state). Monroe does not recommend any particular method of ac
hieving this state. One method you might try is to hold your forearm
up, while keeping your upper arm on the bed, or ground. As you star
t to fall asleep, your arm will fall, and you will awaken again. Wit
h practice you can learn to control the hypnagogic state without usin
g your arm. Another method is to concentrate on an object. When oth
er images start to enter your thoughts, you have entered the hypnagog
ic state. Passively watch these images. This will also help you mai
ntain this state of near-sleep. Monroe calls this Condition A.
After first achieving this state Monroe recommends to deepen it. B
egin to clear your mind and observe your field of vision through your
closed eyes. Do nothing more for a while. Simply look through your
closed eyelids at the blackness in front of you. After a while, you
may notice light patterns. These are simply neural discharges and th
ey have no specific effect. Ignore them. When they cease, one has e
ntered what Monroe calls Condition B. From here, one must enter an e
ven deeper state of relaxation which Monroe calls Condition C -- a st
ate of such relaxation that you lose all awareness of the body and se
nsory stimulation. You are almost in a void in which your only sourc
e of stimulation will be your own thoughts. The ideal state for leavi
ng your body is Condition D. This is Condition C when it is voluntar
ily induced from a rested and refreshed condition and is not the effe
ct of normal fatigue. To achieve Condition D, Monroe suggests that y
ou practice entering it in the morning or after a short nap.
With eyes closed look into the blackness at a spot about a foot fro
m your forehead, concentrating your consciousness on that point. Mov
e it gradually to three feet away, then six, and then turn it 90 degr
ees upward, reaching above your head. Monroe orders you to reach for
the vibrations at that spot and then mentally pull them into your he
ad. He explains how to recognize them when they occur. 'It is as if
a surging, hissing, rhythmically pulsating wave of fiery sparks comes
roaring into your head. From there it seems to sweep throughout your
body, making it rigid and immobile.' This method is easier than it
sounds.
Once you have achieved the vibrational state you have to learn to c
ontrol it, to smooth out the vibrations by 'pulsing' them. At this p
oint, Monroe warns it is impossible to turn back. He suggests reachi
ng out an arm to grasp some object which you know is out of normal re
ach. Feel the object and then let your hand pass through it, before
bringing it back, stopping the vibrations and checking the details an
d location of the object. This exercise will prepare you for full se
paration.
To leave the body Monroe advocates the 'lift-out' method. To emplo
y this method think of getting lighter and of how nice it would be to
float upwards. An alternative is the 'rotation' technique in which
you turn over in bed, twisting first the top of the body, head and sh
oulders until you turn right over and float upwards. Later you can e
xplore further. With sufficient practice Monroe claims that a wide v
ariety of experiences are yours for the taking.
RITUAL MAGIC METHODS
Most magical methods are also based on imagery or visualization and
use concentration and relaxation. All these methods require good me
ntal control and a sound knowledge of the system being used, with its
tools and symbols. Charles Tart, in introducing the concept of 'sta
te specific sciences' [Tar72b] also considered state specific technol
ogies, that is, means of achieving, controlling and using altered sta
tes of consciousness. Many magical rituals are really just such techn
ologies. In a typical exercise the magician will perform an opening
ritual, a cleansing or purifying ritual and then one to pass from one
state to another. Once in the state required he operates using the
rules of that state and then returns, closes the door that was opened
and ends the ritual.
This technology varies almost as much as the theory, for there are
a multitude of ways of reaching the astral. One can use elemental do
orways, treat the cards of the tarot as stepping stones, perform cabb
alistic path- workings or use mantras. The techniques are very simil
ar to all others we have been considering, so we can see the complexi
ties of ritual magic as just another related way achieving the same e
nds.
MEDITATION AND CHAKRA MEDITATION
Meditation has two basic functions -- achieving relaxation and impr
oving concentration. Therefore the ideal state for OBE is familiar t
o meditators and indeed OBEs have occasionally been reported during m
editation and yoga. The two main types of meditation are concentratio
n meditation (focusing) and insight meditation (mindfullness). Most
kinds of meditation are the concentrative type. One simply focuses h
is attention upon a single physical object, such as a candle flame; u
pon a sensation, such as that felt while walking or breathing; upon a
n emotion, such as reverence or love; upon a mantra spoken aloud or e
ven silently; or upon a visualization as in chakra meditation. Conce
ntration meditation is, simply put, a form of self-hypnosis.
The other main type of meditation, insight meditation, is the analy
sis of thoughts and feelings in such a way as to cause realization of
the subjectivity and illusion of experience. Such meditation is don
e in an effort to attain transcendental awareness.
Chakra meditation is a special type of concentrative meditation whi
ch is basically kundalini yoga -- the practice of causing psychic ene
rgy (kundalini) to flow up sushumna, energizing the various chakras a
long the way. A chakra is 'a sense organ of the ethereal body, visib
le only to a clairvoyant' [Gay74]. As each chakra is energized by th
is practice, it is believed to add occult powers (sidhis), until at l
ast the crown chakra is reached, and with it, full enlightenment is a
ttained.
According to East Indian philosophy, man possesses seven major chak
ras or psychic centers on his body. In theosophical scheme there are
ten chakras, which permit those trained in their use to gain knowled
ge of the astral world (three of the ten are used in black magic only
). Each of the chakras forms a bridge, link, or energy transformer;
changing pure (higher) energy into various forms, and connecting diff
erent bodies together. The chakras are located along the nadies (a n
etwork of psychic nerves or channels) and follow the autonomic nervou
s system along the spinal cord.
The first chakra, located at the base of the spine at the perineum
is the root chakra, muladhara. The second chakra, known as the sacra
l center, svadhisthana, is located above and behind the genitals. Th
ird of the chakras is the solar plexus, manipura, located at the nave
l and it is said to correspond with the emotions and also with psychi
c sight (clairvoyance). The heart chakra, anahata, is the fourth chak
ra, located over the heart and corresponding with the psychic touch.
The fifth chakra is the throat chakra, vishuddha, located at the bas
e of the throat (thyroid) and corresponding with psychic hearing (cla
iraudience).
The remaining two chakras are believed to relate mostly to elevated
states of consciousness. The frontal chakra, (or 'third eye') ajna,
the sixth chakra, is located between, and slightly above, the eyebro
ws. Ajna is the center of psychic powers and it is believed to be ab
le to produce many psychic effects. Finally, the crown chakra, sahas
rara, located atop the head, (pineal gland) is the seventh chakra. I
t is referred to as the thousand-petaled lotus and corresponds with a
stral projection and enlightenment.
To practice this chakra meditation, you simply concentrate on the c
hakras, beginning with the root chakra, and moving progressively up,
as you visualize psychic energy from the root chakra traveling up shu
shumna and vivifying each higher chakra. As mentioned above the chak
ras have certain properties associated with them, so that this type o
f visualization may 'raise consciousness,' promote astral projection,
and other things -- once you have reached ajna and eventually the cr
own chakra.
HYPNOSIS
In the early days of psychical research hypnosis was used a great d
eal more than now to bring about 'traveling clairvoyance,' but it can
still be used. All that is required is skilled hypnotist with some u
nderstanding of the state into which he wants to put the subject, and
a willing subject. The subject must be put into a fairly deep hypno
tic state and then the hypnotist can suggest to him that he leaves hi
s body. The subject can be asked to lift up out of his body, to crea
te a double and step into it, to roll off his bed or chair, or leave
through the top of his head. He can then be asked to travel to any p
lace desired, but hypnotist must be sure to specify very clearly wher
e he is to go, and to bring him safely back to his body when expediti
on is over. If this is not done the subject may have difficulty reor
ientating himself afterwards.
DRUGS
There are some drugs which can undoubtedly help initiate an OBE. Ha
llucinogens have long been used in various cultures to induce states
like OBEs, and in our own culture OBEs are sometimes an accidental pr
oduct of a drug experience. In absence of any further information we
might already be able to guess which are the sorts of drugs likely t
o have this effect. They might be those which physically relax the su
bject while leaving his consciousness clear and alert. Drugs which d
istort sensory input and disrupt the subject's sense of where and wha
t shape his body is ought to help, and so may anything which induces
a sense of shaking or vibration. Imagery must be intensified without
control being lost and finally there must be some reason, or wish, fo
r leaving the body.
Considering these points hallucinogens might be expected to be more
effective than stimulants, tranquillizers or sedatives. The latter
may aid relaxation but help with none of the other features just ment
ioned. Few other types of drug have any relevant effect. This fact
fits with what is known about the effectiveness of drugs for inducing
OBEs. Monroe states that barbiturates and alcohol are harmful to th
e ability, and this makes sense since they would tend to reduce contr
ol over imagery even though they are relaxing. Eastman [Eas62] state
s that barbiturates do not lead OBEs whereas morphine, ether, chlorof
orm, major hallucinogens and hashish can.
Relatively little research has carried out in this area, partly bec
ause most of the relevant drugs are illegal in the countries where th
at research might be carried out. It seems that certain drugs can fa
cilitate an OBE but what is not clear is why drug experience should t
ake that form rather than any other. Part of the answer is that usua
lly it does not. There is no specific OBE-creating drug, and OBEs ar
e relatively rarely a part of a psychedelic drug experience. Drugs m
ay help in inducing the OBE but they are not recommended as a route t
o the instant projection, they are no alternative to learning the ski
lls of relaxation, concentration, and imagery control.
DREAM DEVELOPMENT
Many OBEs start from dreams and since, by definition, one has to be
conscious to have an OBE, they tend to start from lucid dreams. The
dreamer may become aware that he is dreaming and then find himself i
n some place other than his bed and able to move about at will. He m
ay have another body and may even attempt to see his physical body ly
ing asleep. This topic is covered separately in the later section on
lucid dreams.
PALMER'S EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
In the search for a simple and effective method of inducing an OBE
Palmer and his colleagues [PL75a, 75b, 76, PV74a, 74b] use relaxation
and audio- visual stimulation. Subjects went through a progressive
muscular relaxation session and the heard oscillating tones and watch
ed a rotating spiral. One of the interesting findings was that many
of the subjects claimed that they had been 'literally out of' their b
odies, and there were indications that their experiences were very di
fferent in some ways from other those encountered in OBEs.
What are lucid dreams?
The term lucid dreaming refers to dreaming while knowing that you are
dreaming. It was coined by the Dutch psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden in
1913. It is something of a misnomer since it means something quite
different from just clear or vivid dreaming. Nevertheless we are certainly
stuck with it. That lucid dreams are different from ordinary dreams is
obvious as soon as you have one. The experience is something like waking up
in your dreams. It is as though you 'come to' and find you are dreaming.
This experience generally happens when you realize during the course of a
dream that you are dreaming, perhaps because something weird occurs. Most
people who remember their dreams have had such an experience at some time,
often waking up immediately after the realization. However, it is possible
to continue in the dream while remaining fully aware that you are dreaming.
One distinct and confusing form of lucid dreams are false awakenings. You
dream of waking up but in fact, of course, are still asleep. Van Eeden
[Van13] called these 'wrong waking up' and described them as 'demoniacal,
uncanny, and very vivid and bright, with ... a strong diabolical light.' The
one positive benefit of false awakenings is that they can sometimes be used
to induce OBEs. Indeed, Oliver Fox [Fox62] recommends using false
awakenings as a method for achieving the OBE. For many people OBEs and
lucid dreams are practically indistinguishable. If you dream of leaving
your body, the experience is much the same.
LaBerge's studies of physiology of the initiation of lucidity in the dream
state have revealed that lucid dreams have two ways of starting. In the
much more common variety, the 'dream-initiated lucid dream' (DILD), the
dreamer acquires awareness of being in a dream while fully involved in it.
DILDs occur when dreamers are right in the middle of REM sleep, showing lots
of the characteristic rapid eye movements. DILDs account for about four out
of every five lucid dreams that the dreamers have had in the laboratory. In
the other 20 percent, the dreamers report awakening from a dream and then
returning to the dream state with unbroken awareness -- one moment they are
aware that they are awake in bed in the sleep laboratory, and the next
moment, they are aware that they have entered a dream and are no longer
perceiving the room around them. These are called 'wake initiated lucid
dreams' (WILDs).
For many people, having lucid dreams is fun, and they want to learn how to
have more or to how to induce them at will. One finding from early
experimental work was that high levels of physical (and emotional) activity
during the day tend to precede lucidity at night. Waking during the night
and carrying out some kind of activity before falling asleep again can also
encourage a lucid dream during the next REM period and is the basis of some
induction techniques. Many methods have been developed and they roughly
fall into three categories.
One of the best known techniques for stimulating lucid dreams is LaBerge's
MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming). This technique is practiced on
waking in the early morning from a dream. You should wake up fully, engage
in some activity like reading or walking about, and then lie down to go to
sleep again. Then you must imagine yourself asleep and dreaming, rehearse
the dream from which you woke, and remind yourself, 'Next time I have this
dream, I want to remember I'm dreaming.'
A second approach involves constantly reminding yourself to become lucid
throughout the day rather than the night. This is based on the idea that we
spend most of our time in a kind of waking daze. If we could be more lucid
in waking life, perhaps we could be more lucid while dreaming. German
psychologist Paul Tholey [Tho83] suggests asking yourself many times every
day, 'Am I dreaming or not?' This exercise might sound easy, but is not. It
takes a lot of determination and persistence not to forget all about it.
For those who do forget, French researcher Clerc suggests writing a large
'C' on your hand (for 'conscious') to remind you [GB89]. This kind of method
is similar to the age-old technique for increasing awareness by meditation
and mindfulness.
The third and final approach requires a variety of gadgets. The idea is to
use some sort of external signal to remind people, while they are actually
in REM sleep, that they are dreaming. Hearne first tried spraying water
onto sleepers' faces or hands but found it too unreliable. This sometimes
caused them to incorporate water imagery into their dreams, but they rarely
became lucid. He eventually decided to use a mild electrical shock to the
wrist. His 'dream machine' detects changes in breathing rate (which
accompany the onset of REM) and then automatically delivers a shock to the
wrist [Hea90].
Meanwhile, in California, LaBerge [LaB85] was rejecting taped voices and
vibrations and working instead with flashing lights. The original version
of a lucid dream-inducing device which he developed was laboratory based and
used a personal computer to detect the eye movements of REM sleep and to
turn on flashing lights whenever the REMs reached a certain level.
Eventually, however, all the circuitry was incorporated into a pair of
goggles. The idea is to put the goggles on at night, and the lights will
flash only when you are asleep and dreaming. The user can even control the
level of eye movements at which the lights begin to flash. The newest
version has a chip incorporated into the goggles, which will not only
control the lights but will store data on eye-movement density during the
night as well as information about when and for how long the lights were
flashing, making fine tuning possible.
There are two reasons for associating lucid dreams with OBEs. First, recent
research suggests that the same people tend to have both lucid dreams and
OBEs [Bla88, Irw88]. Second, as Green pointed out [Gre68b] it is hard to
know where to draw the line between an OBE and a lucid dream. In both, the
person seems to be perceiving a consistent world. Also the subject, unlike
in an ordinary dream, is well aware that he is in some altered state and is
able to comment on and even control the experience. Green refers to all such
states as 'metachoric experiences.' It is possible to draw a line between
these two experiences, but the important point to realize is that that line
is not clear, and the two have much in common.
But there is an important difference between lucid dreams and the other
states. In the lucid dream one has insight into the state (in fact that
fact defines the state). In false awakening, one does not have such insight
(again by definition). In typical OBEs, people feel that they have really
left their bodies. Those experiencing NDEs may have a sense of rushing down
a long tunnel, which some perceive as being an entryway into a world beyond
death. It is only in the lucid dream that one realizes it is a dream.
Just as in the case of OBEs, surveys can tell us how common lucid dreams are
and who has them. Blackmore estimates that about 50 percent of people have
had at least one lucid dream in their lives [Bla91]. Green [Gre66] found
that 73% of student sample answered 'yes' to the question, 'Have you ever
had a dream in which you were aware that you were dreaming?.' Palmer found
that 56% of the townspeople and 71% of the students in his sample reported
that they had had lucid dreams and many of these claimed to have them
regularly [Pal79b]. Blackmore found that 79% of the Surrey students she
interviewed had them [Bla82]. Beyond producing these kinds of results, it
does not seem that surveys can find out much. There are no very consistent
differences between lucid dreamers and others in terms of age, sex,
education, and so on [GL88]. All these surveys seem to agree quite closely,
showing that the lucid dream is a rather common experience -- far more
common than the OBE.
What is the physiology of dreams and lucid dreams?
The electrical activity of the brain has been observed and classified with
EEG (electroencephalograph) equipment; signals are picked up from the scalp
by electrodes, then filtered and amplified to drive a graph recorder. Brain
activity has been found to produce specific ranges for certain basic states
of consciousness, as indicated in 'Hz' (Hertz, or cycles/vibrations per
second):
delta -- 0.2 to 3.5 Hz (deep sleep, trance state) theta -- 3.5 to
7.5 Hz (day dreaming, memory) alpha -- 7.5 to 13 Hz (tranquility,
heightened awareness, meditation) beta -- 13 to 28 Hz (tension,
'normal' consciousness)
In the drowsy state before falling asleep, the EEG is characterized by many
alpha waves while the muscles start to relax. Gradually this state gives
way to Stage 1 sleep. Three more stages follow, each having different EEG
patterns and marked by successively deeper states of relaxation. By Stage 4
the sleeper is very relaxed, his breathing is slower, and skin resistance
high. He is very hard to wake up. If the dreamer is awakened, he may say
that he was thinking about something or he may describe some vague imagery,
but he will rarely recount anything which sounds like a typical dream.
But this is not all there is to sleep -- increasing oblivion. In a normal
night's sleep, a distinct change takes place an hour or two after the onset
of sleep. Although the muscles are still relaxed, the sleeper may move, and
from the EEG it appears that he is going to wake up and he returns to
something resembling Stage 1 sleep. Yet he will still be very hard to wake
up, and in this sense is fast asleep. The most distinctive feature,
however, is the rapid eye movements, or REMs and the stage is also called
REM-sleep. In earlier stages the eyes may roll about slowly, now, however,
they dart about as though watching something. If woken up now the sleeper
will usually report that he was dreaming.
Lucid dreams implied that there could be consciousness during sleep, a claim
many psychologists denied for more than 50 years. Orthodox sleep
researchers argued that lucid dreams could not possibly be real dreams. If
the accounts were valid, then the experiences must have occurred during
brief moments of wakefulness or in the transition between waking and
sleeping, not in the kind of deep sleep in which REMs and ordinary dreams
usually occur. In other words, they could not really be dreams at all.
This contention presented a challenge to lucid dreamers who wanted to
convince people that they really were awake in their dreams. But of course
when you are deep asleep and dreaming you cannot shout, 'Hey! Listen to me.
I'm dreaming right now.' During REM sleep, the muscles of the body,
excluding the eye muscles and those responsible for circulation and
respiration, are immobilized by orders from a nerve center in the lower
brain. This fact prevents us from acting out our dreams. Occasionally,
this paralysis turns on or remains active while the person's mind is fully
awake and aware of the world.
It was Keith Hearne [Hea78], of the University of Hull, who first exploited
the fact that not all the muscles are paralyzed. In REM sleep the eyes
move. So perhaps a lucid dreamer could signal by moving the eyes in a
predetermined pattern. Lucid dreamer Alan Worsley first managed to do this
in Hearne's laboratory. He decided to move his eyes left and right eight
times in succession whenever he became lucid. Using a polygraph, Hearne
could watch the eye movements for sign of the special signal. The answer
was unambiguous. All the lucid dreams occurred in definite REM sleep. In
other words they were, in this sense, true dreams.
A typical lucid dream lasted between two and five minutes, occurred at about
6.30 a.m., about 24 minutes into a REM period and towards the end of a
22-second REM burst. The nights on which lucid dreams occurred did not show
a different sleep pattern from other nights, although they did tend to
follow days of above average stimulation.
It is sometimes said that discoveries in science happen when the time is
right for them. It was one of those odd things that at just the same time,
but unbeknownst to Hearne, Stephen LaBerge, at Stanford University in
California, was trying the same experiment. He too succeeded, but
resistance to the idea was very strong. In 1980, both Science and Nature
rejected his first paper on the discovery [LaB85]. It was only later that
it became clear just how important this discovery had been.
Some conclusions can be drawn from this information. In both OBEs and lucid
dreams, the person seems to have his waking consciousness, or something
close to it. He is able to see clearly, but what he sees is not quite like
the physical and it appears to have many of the properties of a dream world
or imaginary world. But there are differences as well: the lucid dream
starts more often when the subject is asleep, and the dream world is less
distinct and real than the OB 'world,' allowing less control and freedom of
movement; in addition, the person who has an OBE starting from the waking
state never actually thinks he is dreaming. Most lucid dreams involve only
the subject, but there are cases on record of 'meetings' in lucid dreams.
The important question is whether the OBEer is observing the same world as
the lucid dreamer. Are the two experiences essentially aspects of the same
phenomenon?
According to Stephen LaBerge it seems possible that at least some OBEs arise
from the same conditions as sleep paralysis, and that these two terms may
actually be naming two aspects of the same phenomenon [LL91]. In his
opinion the survey evidence favors this theory. There is also considerable
evidence that people who tend to have OBEs also tend to have lucid dreams,
flying and falling dreams, and the ability to control their dreams [Bla84,
Gli89, Irw88]. Because of the strong connection between OBEs and lucid
dreaming, some researchers in the area have suggested that OBEs are a type
of lucid dream [Far76, Hon79, Sal82].
One problem with this argument is that although people who have OBEs are
also likely to have lucid dreams, OBEs are far less frequent, and can happen
to people who have never had lucid dreams. Furthermore, OBEs are quite
plainly different from lucid dreams in that during a typical OBE the
experient is convinced that the OBE is a real event happening in the
physical world and not a dream, unlike a lucid dream, in which by definition
the dreamer is certain that the event is a dream. There is an exception
that connects the two experiences -- when we feel ourselves leaving the
body, but also know that we are dreaming.
LaBerge organized a study which consisted of analysis of the data of 107
lucid dreams from a total of 14 different people. The physiological
information that was collected included brain waves, eye-movements and chin
muscle activity. In all cases, the dreamer signaled the beginning of the
lucid dream by making a distinct pattern of eye movements. After verifying
that all the lucid dreams had eye signals showing that they had happened in
REM sleep, they were classified into DILDs and WILDs, based on how long the
dreamers had been in REM sleep without awakening before becoming lucid, and
on their report of either having realized they were dreaming while involved
in a dream (DILD) or having entered the dream directly from waking while
retaining lucidity (WILD). Alongside the physiological analysis each dream
report was scored for the presence of various events that are typical of
OBEs, such as feelings of body distortion (including paralysis and
vibrations), floating or flying, references to being aware of being in bed,
being asleep or lying down, and the sensation of leaving the body.
Ten of the 107 lucid dreams qualified as OBEs, because the dreamers reported
feeling as if they had left their bodies in the dream. Twenty of the lucid
dreams were WILDs, and 87 were DILDs. Five of the OBEs were WILDs (28%) and
five were DILDs (6%). Thus, OBEs were more than four times more likely in
WILDs than in DILDs. The three OBE-related events which were looked for
also all occurred more often in WILDs than in DILDs. Almost one third of
WILDs contained body distortions, and over a half of them included floating
or flying or awareness of being in bed. This is in comparison to DILDs, of
which less than one fifth involved body distortions, only one third included
floating or flying, and one fifth contained awareness of bed.
The reports from the five DILDs that were classified as OBEs were actually
much like those from the WILD-OBEs. In both the dreamers felt themselves
lying in bed and experiencing strange sensations including paralysis and
floating out-of-body. Although these lucid dreams sound like WILDs, they
were classified as DILDs because the physiological records showed no
awakenings preceding lucidity. However, it is possible that these people
could have momentarily become aware of their environments (and hence been
'awake') while continuing to show the brainwaves normally associated with
REM sleep.
The laboratory studies show that when OBEs happen in lucid dreams they
happen either when a person re-enters REM sleep right after an awakening, or
right after having become aware of being in bed. Could this relationship
apply to OBEs and lucid dreams that people experience at home, in the 'real
world'?
Not being able to take the sleep lab to the homes of hundreds of people
LaBerge conducted a survey about OBEs and other dream-related experiences.
The difference between his survey and previous ones is that in addition to
asking if people had had OBEs, he asked specifically about certain events
that are known to be associated with WILDs, namely, lucid dreaming,
returning directly to a dream after awakening from it, and sleep paralysis.
A total of 572 people filled out the questionnaire. About a third of the
group reported having had at least one OBE. Just over 80 percent had had
lucid dreams. Sleep paralysis was reported by 37 percent and 85 percent had
been able to return to a dream after awakening. People who reported more
dream-related experiences also reported more OBEs. For example, of the 452
people claiming to have had lucid dreams, 39 percent also reported OBEs,
whereas only 15 percent of those who did not claim lucid dreams said they
had had OBEs. The group with the most people reporting OBEs (51%) were
those who said they had experienced lucid dreams, dream return, and sleep
paralysis.
In this survey, people reporting frequent dream return also tended to report
frequent lucid dreams. Thus, LaBerge believes that the fact that dream
return frequency is linked with OBE frequency in this study gives further
support to the laboratory research finding that WILDs were associated with
OBEs. On the other hand he stresses that the proof that some or even most
OBEs are dreams is not enough to allow us to say that a genuine OBE is
impossible. However, he suggests that if you have an OBE, why not test to
see if the OBE-world passes the reality test. Is the room you are in the
one you are actually sleeping in? If you have left your body, where is it?
Do things change when you are not looking at them (or when you are)? Can you
read something twice and have it remain the same on both readings? LaBerge
asks 'If any of your questions and investigations leave you doubting that
you are in the physical world, is it not logical to believe you are
dreaming?' [LL91].
What is the physiology of OBEs?
Clearly there are similarities between OBEs and dreams. In both we
experience a world in which imagination plays a great part and we can
perform feats not possible in everyday life. But the OBE differs in many
important and obvious ways from what we have called an ordinary dream. For
a start, it usually occurs when the subject is awake, or at least if drowsy
or drugged, not sleeping. Second, the imagery and activities of an OBE are
usually much less bizarre and more coherent than those of an ordinary dream,
and most often the scenery is something from the normal environment rather
than the peculiar setting of dreams. Third, OBEers are often adamant that
their experience was nothing like a dream. Finally, there is the great
difference in the state of consciousness. Ordinary dreams are characterized
by very cloudly consciousness at best, and are only recognized as dreams on
waking up.
But these differences are not enough. You may argue that in a lucid dream
both the imagery and the state of consciousness are much more like those in
an OBE. So perhaps the OBE is a kind of lucid dream occurring in the midst
of waking life. One way to find out might be to determine the physiological
state in which the OBE takes place. Such a finding can only be made by
means of laboratory experiment; but first we need to catch an OBE in the
laboratory.
Observing an OBE in the laboratory setting is not easy. Most people who
have an OBE have only one, or at most few, in a lifetime. Capturing an OBE
requires a special kind of subject, one who is both able to induce an OBE at
will, and willing to be subjected to the stress of being tested. Fortunately
there are such subjects.
One of the first to be tested was a young girl called Miss Z., by Charles
Tart who studied her OBEs [Tar68]. Her OBEs all occurred at night. She
used to wake up in the night and find herself floating near the ceiling.
With Miss Z. as subject Tart initially wanted to test two aspects of the
OBE: first, whether ESP could occur during an OBE, and second what
physiological state was associated with the experience. Altogether, Miss Z.
spent four non-consecutive nights sleeping at the lab.
During her first night Miss Z. had no OBEs. During the second night she
woke twice and reported that she had been floating above her body. During
the first experience Miss Z. had not yet fallen asleep when the OBE
occurred, and the EEG showed a drowsy waking pattern followed by waking when
she told Tart about the experience. All the time the heart rate had been
steady and there were no REMs. Then at 3.15 a.m. Miss Z. woke up and called
out 'write down 3.13.' Apparently she had left her body and lifted up high
enough to see the clock on the wall. At that time the EEG showed various
patterns but predominantly theta and alphoid activity. There were few sleep
spindles (a feature of the EEG pattern in certain stages of sleep), no REMs,
no GSRs (galvanic skin response) and a steady heartbeat.
On the third night Miss Z. had a dramatic OBE. She seemed to be flying, and
found herself at her home in Southern California, with her sister. Her
sister got up from the rocking chair where she had been sitting and the two
of them communicated without speaking. After a while they both walked into
the bedroom and saw the sister's body lying in bed asleep. Almost as soon
as she realized that it was time to go, the OBE was over and Miss Z. found
herself back in the laboratory. Tart was not able to contact the sister to
check whether she had been aware of the visit, but the physiological record
showed that there was mostly alphoid activity with no REMs and only a couple
of minutes of Stage 1, dreaming sleep, with REMs.
The last night was in some ways the most exciting, for on that occasion the
subject was able to see an ESP target provided; but the EEG record was
obscured by a lot of interference. Tart described it as somewhat like Stage
1 with REMs, but he added that he could not be sure whether it was a Stage1
or a waking pattern.
Amongst all these confusing and changeable patterns, some certainty does
emerge. In general the EEG showed a pattern most like poorly developed
Stage 1 mixed with brief periods of wakefulness. For this subject at least
OBEs do not occur in the same state as dreaming. Tart would have liked to
have continued working with Miss Z. but this proved impossible as she had to
return to Southern California.
However, Tart [Tar67] was able to work with another subject, Robert Monroe,
well known from his books. Monroe was monitored for nine sessions with EEG
and other devices. In this environment Monroe had difficulty inducing an
OBE. Electrodes were clipped to his ear, and he found them very
uncomfortable. During all the time that he was trying to have an OBE his
EEG showed a strange mixture of patterns. There was unusually varied alpha
rhythm, variable sleep spindles, and high voltage theta waves. On the whole
Tart concluded that Monroe was in Stages 1 and 2 and was relaxed and drowsy,
falling in and out of sleep. His sleep pattern was quite normal and he had
normal dream periods and sleep cycle.
During the penultimate session Monroe managed to have an OBE. Tart
concluded that Monroe's OBEs occurred in the dreaming state; but this idea
presented him with a problem. Monroe claims that for him, dreaming and OBEs
are entirely different. Tart finally concluded that perhaps the OBEs were a
mixture of dreams and 'something else.' This 'something else' might, he
thought, be ESP.
One of the next subjects to be tested in this way was Ingo Swann. In
several experiments at the ASPR [OM77] Swann was attached to the EEG
equipment while he sat in a darkened room and tried to exteriorise, in his
own time, and to travel to a distant room where ESP targets were set up. He
did not fall asleep and was thus able to make comments about how he was
getting on. After some months of this type of experiment Swann suggested
that he might be able to leave his body on command and so he was arranged to
receive an audible signal to tell him when to go, and when to return.
Apparently he succeeded in this effort, which meant that OBE and other times
could easily be determined and compared.
During the OBE periods, the EEG was markedly flattened and there were
frequency changes, with a decrease in alpha and increase in beta activity.
While these changes took place, the heart rate stayed normal. These
findings are rather different from those with previous subjects in that
Swann seemed to be more alert during his OBEs. Perhaps this just confirms
what was learned from case studies, that the OBE can occur in a variety of
states. But perhaps most important is that in no case so far did there seem
to be a discrete state in which the OBE took place. There were no sudden
changes in either EEG or autonomic functions to mark the beginning or end of
the OBE. Any changes were gradual; unlike dreaming, the OBE does not seem
to be associated with a discrete physiological state.
The one other subject who has taken part in a large number of OBE
experiments is Keith ('Blue') Harary. The experiments in which his
physiological state was measured were carried out at the Physical Research
Foundation [Mor73, HJH74, JHHLM74, MHJHR78]. The findings were different
again from those of previous studies. Here there were no changes in EEG.
The amount and frequency of alpha were the same in OBE and 'cool down'
periods and there were only slightly fewer eye movements in the OBE phases.
These measurements alone show that Harary was awake and that his OBEs did
not occur in a sleeping, dreaming or borderline state.
Other measures did show a change. Skin potential fell, indicating greater
relaxation, and it was this measure which provided the best indicator that
an OBE had begun. Both heart rate and respiration increased. These changes
are surprising because they imply a greater degree of arousal; the opposite
of the finding from skin potential. So in some ways Harary was more
relaxed, but he was also more alert.
Great differences between subjects tend to obscure any clear pattern in the
states, but in all this confusion it is clear that the start of an OBE does
not coincide with any abrupt physiological change. There is no discrete OBE
state. The OBE does not, at least for these subjects, and under these
conditions, occur in a state resembling dreaming. The subjects were
relaxed, and even drowsy or lightly asleep, but they were not dreaming when
they had their OBEs.
What are near-death experiences and are they some kind of OBEs?
Much publicity has recently been given to research on near-death experiences
(NDEs), experiences of those who survive a close encounter with death. More
people now survive close brushes with death. The near-death experience has
been defined as the 'experiential counterpart of the physiological
transition to biological death' [Sab82]: it is the record of conscious
experience from the inside rather than the outside, from the point of view
of the subject rather the spectator.
Raymond Moody [Moo75, 77] interviewed many people who had been resuscitated
after having had accidents and he then put together an idealized version of
a typical near-death experience. He emphasized that no one person described
the whole of this experience, but each feature was found in many of the
stories. Here is his description:
A man is dying and, as he reaches the point of greatest physical di
stress, he hears himself pronounced dead by his doctor. He begins to
hear an uncomfortable noise, a loud ringing or buzzing, and at the s
ame time feels himself moving very rapidly through a long dark tunnel
. After this, he suddenly finds himself outside of his own physical
body, but still in the immediate physical environment, and he sees hi
s own body from a distance, as though he is a spectator. He watches
the resuscitation attempt from this unusual vantage point and is in a
state of emotional upheaval.
After a while, he collects himself and becomes more accustomed to h
is odd condition. He notices that he still has a 'body,' but one of
a very different nature and with very different powers from the physi
cal body he has left behind. Soon other things begin to happen. Oth
ers come to meet and to help him. He glimpses the spirits of relativ
es and friends who have already died, and a loving, warm spirit of a
kind he has never encountered before -- a being of light -- appears b
efore him. This being asks him a question, non-verbally, to make him
evaluate his life and helps him along by showing him a panoramic, ins
tantaneous playback of the major events of his life. At some point h
e finds himself approaching some sort of barrier or border, apparentl
y representing the limit between earthly life and the next life. Yet
, he finds that he must go back to the earth, that the time for his d
eath has not yet come. At this point he resists, for by now he is ta
ken up with his experiences in the afterlife and does not want to ret
urn. He is overwhelmed by intense feelings of joy, love, and peace.
Despite his attitude, though, he somehow reunites with his physical
body and lives.
Later he tries to tell others, but he has trouble doing so. In the
first place, he can find no human words adequate to describe these u
nearthly episodes. He also finds that others scoff, so he stops tell
ing other people. Still, the experience affects his life profoundly
especially his views about death and its relationship to life.
The parallel between this kind of account and many OBEs is clear. There is
the tunnel traveled through as well as the experiences of seeing one's own
body from outside and seeming to have some other kind of body, and the
ineffability is familiar. One is tempted to conclude that in death a
typical OBE, or astral projection, occurs, and is followed by a transition
to another world, with the aid of people who have already made the crossing,
and that of higher beings in whose plane one is going to lead the next phase
of existence. Although Moody's work gave a good idea of what dying could be
like for some people, it did not begin to answer questions such as how
common this type of experience is.
After Moody there have been studies by cardiologists Rawlings and Sabom. The
most detailed research has been carried out by Kenneth Ring, a psychologist
from Connecticut [Rin79, 80]. From hospitals there he obtained the names of
people who had come close to death, or who had been resuscitated from
clinical death. Almost half of his sample (48%) reported experiences which
were, at least in part, similar to Moody's description. Of Ring's subjects,
95 per cent of those asked stated that the experience was not like a dream
(the same result appears in Sabom): they stressed that it was too real,
being more vivid and more realistic; however some aspects were hard to
express, as the experience did not resemble anything that had happened to
them before.
One of Ring's most interesting findings concerned the stages of the
experience. He showed that the earlier stages also tended to be reported
more frequently. The first stage, peace, was experienced by 60% of his
sample, some of whom did not reach any further stages. The next stage, of
most interest to us here, was that of 'body separation,' in other words, the
OBE. Thirty-seven per cent of Ring's sample reached this stage and what
they reported sounds very similar to descriptions of OBEs. Not all the
'body separations' were distinct. Many of Ring's respondents simply
described a feeling of being separate or detached from everything that was
happening.
Ring tried to find out about two specific aspects of these OBEs. First he
asked whether they had another body. The answer seemed to be 'no': most
were unaware of any other body and answered that they were something like
'mind only.' There was a similar lack of descriptions of the 'silver cord.'
We can see that an OBE of sorts forms an important stage in the near-death
experience.
After the OBE stage comes 'entering the darkness' experienced by nearly a
quarter of Ring's subjects. It was described as 'a journey into a black
vastness without shape or dimension,' as 'a void, a nothing' and as 'very
peaceful blackness.'
For fifteen per cent the next stage was reached, 'seeing the light.' The
light was sometimes at the end of the tunnel, sometimes glimpsed in the
distance but usually it was golden and bright without hurting the eyes.
Sometimes the light was associated with a presence of some kind, or a voice
telling the person to go back.
Finally there were ten per cent experiencers who seemed to 'enter the light'
and pass into or just glimpse another world. This was described as a world
of great beauty, with glorious colors, with meadows of golden grass, birds
singing, or beautiful music. It was at this stage that people were greeted
by deceased relatives, and it was from this world that they did not want to
come back.
A completely different kind of analysis was applied by Noyes and Kletti
[Noy72, NK76] to accounts collected from victims of falls, drownings,
accidents, serious illnesses, and other life-threatening situations. They
emphasized such features as altered time perception and attention, feelings
of unreality and loss of emotions, and the sense of detachment. They found
that these features occurred more often in people who thought they were
about to die than in those who did not. This fitted their interpretation of
the experiences as a form of depersonalization (i.e., the loss of the sense
of personal identity or the sensation of being without material existence)
in the face of a threat to life; that is as a way of escaping or becoming
dissociated from the imminent death of the physical body.
Two other aspects have yet to be dealt with. First, there is the absence of
any trips to 'hell.' Neither Moody nor Ring obtained any accounts of hellish
experiences. However, cardiologist Maurice Rawlings [Raw78] has suggested
that the reason for there being no such reports is that although patients
may recall such hellish experiences immediately afterwards, they tend to
forget them with time. In other words, their memories protect them from
recalling the unpleasant aspects. According to Rawlings it is only because
they have been interviewed too long after the brush with death that all the
experiences are reported as pleasant. It does seem to be the 'good' side of
experiences which makes the greater impact.
Another feature which needs mention is the 'life review.' It has often been
found that a person close to death may seem to see scenes of his past life
pass before him as though on a screen, or in pictures. Ring found that
about a quarter of his core-experiencers reported a life review, and that it
was more common in accident victims than others.
The general effects of undergoing an NDE are of two kinds: philosophical and
ethical. The main philosophical changes are in attitudes towards death and
afterlife. Sabom's figures are extremely interesting in this respect: he
asked those who had and those had not had an NDE when unconscious whether
there was any change in their views of death and the afterlife. Of the 45
who had not had any conscious experience, 39 were just as afraid of death as
before, 5 more afraid and 1 less afraid; while of the 61 with an NDE none
were more afraid, 11 just as afraid and 50 less afraid. The patterns were
similar concerning belief in an afterlife: of the non- experiencers, none
had any change of attitude; while of the experiencers, 14 found their
attitude unchanged and 47 stated that their belief in the afterlife had
increased [Sab82]. Ring found a correlation between loss of fear of death
and what he called the core experience, broadly that with a positive
transcendental element in it. Moody comments that there is remarkable
agreement about the 'lessons' brought back from NDEs: 'Almost everyone has
stressed the importance in this life of trying to cultivate love for others,
a love of a unique and profound kind' [Moo75]. And he adds that a second
characteristic is a realization of the importance of seeking knowledge, of
not confining one's horizon to the material.
A number of reductionist physiological explanations have been advanced to
account for NDEs: the two most common are 'cerebral anoxia' and
'depersonalization'. Cerebral anoxia accounts for the experience by saying
that it is a hallucination due to an oxygen shortage in the brain. We have
seen that such 'hallucinations' frequently turn out to correspond to the
physical events actually occurring -- can the NDE therefore be labelled a
hallucination? Perhaps it can, but certainly not as a delusion. Ring and
Moody both point out that patterns of experiences are no different when
there is clearly no shortage of oxygen. Noyes starts by pointing out that
none of the subjects can really have been dead if they were resuscitated, so
that their reported experiences cannot be taken as 'proof' of survival of
consciousness. Moody never actually states such a position, but rather
confines himself to asserting that the experiences have a suggestive value;
even if for the subjects themselves the experience is proof.
The common factor underlying all the physiological explanations of the NDE
is the attempt to avoid the prima facie interpretation of the experience as
an OBE. Sabom concludes that this hypothesis is the best fit with the data,
while Ring concludes that 'there is abundant empirical evidence pointing to
the reality of out-of-body experiences; that such experiences conform to the
descriptions given by our near-death experiencers; and that there is highly
suggestive evidence that death involves the separation of a second body -- a
double -- from the physical body' [Rin80].
Just as many different interpretations have been presented for all aspects
of the near-death experience. The most important of them have been usefully
summarised by Grosso [Gro81]. Most people seem to agree that the near-death
experience presents remarkable consistency varying little across differences
in culture, religion, and cause of the crisis; what is in dispute is why
there should be such a consistency. Rawlings steeps all his findings in the
language of Christianity, involving heaven and hell and the possibility of
being saved. Noyes interprets NDEs in terms of depersonalization; Siegel in
terms of hallucinations, and Ring, within a parapsychological-holographic
model. But broadly speaking there are two camps. On the other side are
those who see the near-death experience as a sure signpost towards another
world and a life after death; on the other, those who have, in various
different ways, interpreted the experience as part of life, not death, and
as telling us nothing whatsoever about a 'life after life.'
Is the OBE some kind of mental illness?
If the OBE is to be seen as involving psychological processes, rather than
paranormal ones, we need to look at what those processes could be. Let us
begin with a psychiatric approach and ask whether the OBE, or anything like
it, is found in any mental illness.
Noyes and Kletti likened near-death experiences to the phenomenon of
depersonalization. Related to depersonalization is derealization, in which
the surroundings and environment begin to seem unreal and the sufferer seems
to be cut off from reality. Depersonalization is the more common of the
two, and involves feelings that the person's own body is foreign or does not
belong. He may complain that he does not feel emotions even though he
appears to express them, and he may suffer anxiety, distortions of time and
place, and changes in his body image, and the subject may seem to observe
things from a few feet ahead of his body. His conscious 'I- ness' is said
to be outside his body. The patients characterize their imagery as pale and
colorless, and some complain that they have altogether lost the power of
imagination.
This description does not sound like that of someone who has had an OBE or a
NDE. There are distortions of the environment and alterations in imagery in
OBE and NDE experiences, but it seems that imagery typically becomes more
bright and vivid, colorful and detailed, rather than pale and colorless.
There are changes in the emotions -- but rather than a perishing of love and
hate, many OBEers report deep love and joy and positive emotions. The
phenomena of derealization and depersonalization do not in the least help us
to understand. Any small similarities are outweighed by overwhelming
differences.
One syndrome specifically involving doubles is the unusual 'Capgras
syndrome.' A person suffering from this illusion may believe that a friend
or relative has been replaced by an exact double. Since this double is like
the real person in every discernible way, nothing that the 'real person'
says or does will convince the patient otherwise. In this way the patient
can avoid the guilt he feels at any malicious or negative feelings towards a
loved one. From even this very brief description it is obvious that this
illusion bears no resemblance to the OBE.
More relevant may be the kinds of double seen in autoscopy, literally
'seeing oneself.' Although the OBE is rarely distinguished from autoscopy
in the psychiatric literature, other distinctions are made instead. The
main distinction is that OBE involves feeling of being outside the body
while autoscopy usually consist of seeing a double. Some people see the
whole of their body as a double; some see only parts, perhaps only the face.
There is an internal form in which the subject can see his internal organs;
and a cenesthetic form in which he does not see, but only feels the presence
of his double. There is even a negative form in which the subject cannot
see himself even when he tries to look into a mirror.
An entirely different way of looking at autoscopy is through the physical
problems with which it is sometimes associated. One of these is migraine,
the most obvious symptom of which is the debilitating headache. During,
before or after the pain some migraine suffers apparently experience
autoscopy. In any case, a number of examples of people who have suffered
both migraine and a simultaneous experience of either autoscopy or an OBE,
does not prove any particular kind of connection between the two.
Are people who have greater imagery skills more likely to have OBEs?
OBEs might be expected to be more frequently experienced by people with the
most highly developed skills of conceiving mental images if the experience
is one constructed entirely from the imagination. Irwin [Irw80, 81b] was
interested in whether OBEers differ from other people in terms of certain
cognitive skills or ways of thinking, including imagery. He found 21 OBEers
and to these he gave the 'Ways of thinking questionnaire' (WOT), the
'Differential personality questionnaire' (DPQ) and the 'Vividness of visual
imagery questionnaire' (VVIQ). For each he compared the scores of the
OBEers with those expected from studies of larger groups of the population.
The imagery questionnaire a self-rated measure of vividness of just visual
imagery. The scores of these few OBEers were unexpectedly found to be lower
than normal, and significantly so. It seems that they had less, not more,
vivid imagery than the average. The next test, the WOT, aims to test the
verbalizer-visualizer dimension of cognitive style. Irwin's OBEers obtained
scores no different from the average. So there was no evidence that OBEers
are either specially likely to use visualization or verbalization.
Although not directly relevant to the subject of imagery, the results of the
DPQ were interesting. One of the various dimensions of cognitive style
which it measures is 'Absorption.' This relates to a person's capacity to
become absorbed in his experience. For example, someone who easily becomes
immersed in nature, art or a good book or film or a computer game, to the
exclusion of the outside world, would be one who scored highly on the scale
of 'Absorption.' Irwin expected OBEers to be higher on this measure and
that is what he found. His OBEers seemed to be better than average at
becoming involved in their experiences.
Are OBEs some kind of hallucination?
There is no single accepted definition of hallucinations and it is not clear
just how they relate to sensory perception, illusion, dreams and
imagination. However, let us define an hallucination as an apparent
perception of something not physically present, and add that it is not
necessary for the hallucination to be thought 'real' to count. Into this
category come a wide range of experiences occurring in people, not suffering
from any mental or psychiatric disturbance. Visual imagery may occur just
before going to sleep (hypnagogic), on first waking up (hypnopompic) or they
may be induced by drugs, sensory deprivation, sleeplessness, or severe
stress. They may take many forms, from simple shapes to complex scenes.
Although it is possible to have an hallucination involving almost any kind
of imagery, it has long been known that there are remarkable similarities
between the hallucinations of different people, under different
circumstances. Hallucinations were first classified during the last century
during a period when many artists and writers experimented with hashish and
opium as an aid to experiencing them. In 1926 Kluver began a series of
investigations into the effects of mescaline and described four constant
types. These were first the grating, lattice or chessboard, second the
cobweb type, third the tunnel, cone or vessel, and fourth the spiral. As
well as being constant features of mescaline intoxication in different
people, Kluver found that these forms appeared in hallucinations induced by
a wide variety of conditions.
In the 1960s, when many psychedelic drugs began to be extensively used for
recreational purposes, research into their effects proliferated. Leary and
others tried to develop methods by which intoxicated subjects could describe
what was happening to them. Eventually Leary and Lindsley developed the
'experiental typewriter' with twenty keys representing different subjective
states. Subjects were trained to use it but the relatively high doses of
drugs used interfered with their ability to press the keys and so a better
method was needed.
A decade later Siegel gave subjects marijuana, or THC, and asked them simply
to report on what they saw. Even with untrained subjects he found
remarkable consistencies in the hallucinations. In the early stages simple
geometric forms predominated. There was often a bright light in the center
of the field of vision which obscured central details but allowed images at
the edges to be seen more clearly, and the location of this light created a
tunnel-like perspective. Often the images seemed to pulsate and moved
towards or away from the light in the center of the tunnel. At a later
stage, the geometric forms were replaced by complex imagery including
recognizable scenes with people and objects, sometimes with small animals or
caricatures of people. Even in this stage there was much consistency, with
images from memory playing a large part.
On the basis of this work Siegel constructed a list of eight forms, eight
colors, and eight patterns of movement, and trained subjects to use them
when given a variety of drugs (or a placebo) in controlled environment. With
amphetamines and barbiturates the forms reported were mostly black and white
forms moving aimlessly about, but with THC, psilocybin, LSD and mescaline
the forms became more organized as the experience progressed. After 30
minutes there were more lattice and tunnel forms, and the colors shifted
from blue to red, orange to yellow. Movement became more organized with
explosive and rotational patterns. After 90 - 120 minutes most forms were
lattice-tunnels; after that complex imagery began to appear with childhood
memories and scenes, emotional memories and some fantastic scenes. But even
these scenes often appeared in a lattice-tunnel framework. At the peak of
the hallucinatory experience, subjects sometimes said that they had become
part of the imagery. They stopped using similes and spoke of the images as
real. Highly creative images were reported and the changes were very rapid.
According to Siegel [Sie77] at this stage 'The subjects reported feeling
dissociated from their bodies.'
The parallels between the drug-induced hallucinations and the typical
spontaneous OBE should be obvious. Not only did some of the subjects in
Siegel's experiments actually report OBEs, but there were the familiar
tunnels and the bright lights so often associated with near-death
experiences. There was also the 'realness' of everything seen; and the same
drugs which elicited the hallucinations are those which are supposed to be
conducive to OBEs.
There have been many suggestions as to why the tunnel form should be so
common. It has sometimes been compared to the phenomenon of 'tunnel vision'
in which the visual field is greatly narrowed, but usually in OBEs and
hallucinations the apparent visual field is very wide; it is just formed
like a tunnel. A more plausible alternative depends on the way in which
retinal space is mapped on cortical space. If a straight line in the visual
cortex of the brain represents a circular pattern on the retina then
stimulation in a straight line occurring in states of cortical excitation
could produce a sensation of concentric rings, or a tunnel form. This type
of argument is important in understanding the visual illusions of migraine,
in which excitations spread across parts of the cortex.
Another reasonable speculation is that the tunnel has something to do with
constancy mechanisms. As objects move about, or we move relative to them,
their projection on the retina changes shape and size. We have constancy
mechanisms which compensate for this effect. For very large objects,
distortions are necessarily a result of perspective, and yet we see
buildings as having straight wall and roofs. If this mechanism acted
inappropriately on internally generated spontaneous signals, it might
produce a tunnel-like perspective, and any hallucinatory forms would also be
seen against this distorted background.
In drug-induced hallucinations there may come a point at which the subject
becomes part of the imagery and it seems quite real to him, even though it
comes from his memory. The comparison with OBEs is interesting because one
of the most consistent features of spontaneous OBEs is that the experiencers
claim 'it all seemed so real.' If it were a kind of hallucination similar to
these drug-induced ones then it would seem real. Put together the
information from the subject's cognitive map in memory, and an hallucinatory
state in which information from memory is experienced as though it were
perceived, and you have a good many of the ingredients for a classical OBE.
But what of the differences between hallucinations and OBEs? You may point
to the state of consciousness associated with the two and argue that OBEs
often occur when the person claims to be wide awake, and thinking perfectly
normally. But so can hallucinations. With certain drugs consciousness and
thinking seem to be clearer than ever before, just as they often do in an
OBE. An important difference is that in the OBE, the objects of perception
are organized consistently as though they do constitute a stable, physical
world. But such is not always the case; there are many cases which involve
experiences beyond anything to be seen in the physical world.
Consideration of imagery and hallucinations might provide some sort of
framework for understanding the OBE. It would be seen as just one form of a
range of hallucinatory experiences. But (and this is a big but) if the OBE
is basically an hallucination and nothing actually leaves the body, then
paranormal events ought not necessarily to be associated with it. People
ought not to be able to see distant unknown places or influence objects
while 'out of the body'; yet there are many claims to such an effect.
What are the features of OB vision?
In the late 1960s Charles Tart began the first laboratory tests with
subjects who could have OBEs voluntarily [Tar67, 68]. In addition to his
physiological research he also tested subjects' ability to see a target
hidden from their normal sight. His first subject, Miss Z., was tested in a
laboratory where a target was placed on a shelf about five and a half feet
above the bed where she lay. The target was a five-digit number prepared in
advance by Tart and placed on the shelf. Miss Z. slept in the laboratory on
four occasions. On the first she had no OBE; on the second, she managed to
get high enough to see the clock, and on third night she had an OBE but
traveled elsewhere. However, on her fourth and last night she awoke and
reported that she had seen the number and it was 25132. She was right on
all five digits which has a probability of only one in 100,000 of being
right by chance.
Tart himself seemed reluctant to conclude that it was paranormal. Tart's
second subject was Robert Monroe, who came to the laboratory for nine
sessions, but he was only able to induce an OBE in the penultimate session,
and then he had two. During the first of these OBEs he seemed to see a man
and a woman but not to know who or where they were. In the second he made a
great effort to stay 'local' and managed to see a technician, who was
supposed to be monitoring the apparatus. With her he saw a man whom he did
not know was there and whom he later described. It turned out that this was
the husband of the technician, who had come to keep her company. Since
Monroe did not manage to see the target number, no real test of ESP was
possible.
In 1971 Karlis Osis began to plan OBE research at the American SPR. One of
the first subjects to be tested there was Ingo Swann, who went to the
laboratory two or three times a week where Janet Mitchell tested him to see
whether he could identify a target placed out of sight. A platform was
suspended from the ceiling about 10 feet above the ground and divided into
two. On either side of a partition various objects were placed and Swann
was asked to try to travel up to see them. The reason for the partition was
to see whether Swann would identify the correct target for the position in
which he claimed it to be. Bright colors and clear familiar shapes seemed
most successful and glossy pictures or glass did not work well for the
experimental purposes.
After his OBE, Swann usually made drawings of what he had 'seen.' Although
these drawings were far from perfect renderings of the original objects,
they were similar enough that when eight sets of targets and respondes were
given to an independent judge she correctly matched every pair; a result
which is likely to happen by chance only once in about 40,000 times [Mit73].
The results of all these experiment were most encouraging. From Tart's
results especially it seemed that although it was very hard for the subject
to get to see the number, and that if the number was seen, it was seen
correctly. Further research showed that OB vision could be just as confused
and erratic as ESP has always seemed to be. For example Osis [Osi73]
advertised for people who could have OBEs to come to the ASPR for testing.
About one hundred came forward and were asked to try to travel to a distant
room and to report on what objects they could see there. Osis found that
most of them thought they could see the target but most were wrong. He
concluded that the vast majority of the experiences had nothing to do with
bone fide OBEs. This conclusion means that Osis was using the ability to
see correctly as a criterion for the occurrence of a genuine OBE.
Much of the recent research on OBEs has been directed towards that important
question; does anything leave the body in an OBE? On the one hand are the
'ecsomatic' or 'extrasomatic' theories which claim that something does
leave. This something might be the astral body of traditional theory or
some other kind of entity. Morris [Mor73] has referred to the 'theta
aspect' of man which may leave the body temporarily in an OBE, and
permanently at death. On the other hand there are theories which claim that
nothing leaves. Some of these predict that no paranormal events should
occur during OBEs, but the major alternative to consider here is that
nothing leaves, but the subject uses ESP to detect the target. This concept
has been referred to as the 'imagination plus ESP' theory.
This last theory is problematic. The term ESP is a catch-all, is negatively
defined, and is capable of subsuming almost any result one cares to mention.
How then can it be ruled out? And given these two theories, how can we
find out which, if either, is correct? In spite of the difficulties several
parapsychologists have set about this task. Osis, for example, suggested
that if the subject in an OBE has another body and is located at the distant
position, then he should see things as though looking from that position. If
he were using ESP he should see things as though with ESP.
This general ideal led Osis to suggest placing a letter 'd' in such way that
if seen directly (or presumably by ESP) a 'd' would be seen, but if looked
from a designated position a 'p' would appear, reflected in a mirror.
Following this idea further he developed his 'optical image device' which
displays various pictures in several colors as in four quadrants. The final
picture is put together using black and white outlines, a color wheel, and a
series of mirrors. By, as it were, looking into the box by ESP one would
not find the complete picture. To do so can only be achieved by looking in
through the viewing window [Osi75].
Experiments with this device were carried out with Alex Tanous, a psychic
from Maine. Tanous lay down in a soundproofed room and was asked to leave
his body and go to the room containing the device, look in through the
observation window and return to relate what he had seen. Osis recounts
that at first Tanous did not succeed, but eventually he seemed to improve.
On each trial Tanous was told whether he was right or wrong and was thus
able to look for criteria which might help to identify when he was
succeeding. On those trials which he indicated he was most confident about,
his results 'approached significance' on the color aspect of the target.
Osis claimed that this aspect was most important for testing his theory
because some of the colors were modified by the apparatus and would be very
hard to get right by ESP. The next tests therefore used only a color wheel
with three pictures and six colors. This time overall scores were not
significant but high-confidence scores for the whole target were significant
and in the second half of the experiment Tanous scored significantly on
several target aspects, especially the one which Osis claimed required
'localized sensing.'
Blue Harary, who has provided so much interesting information about the
physiology of the OBE, was tested for perception during his OBEs, but
according to Rogo [Rog78c] he was only 'sporadically successful' on target
studies and so research with him concentrated on other aspects of his
experience.
Apart from all these experiments there is really only one more approach
which is relevant to the question of ESP in OBEs and that is work done by
Palmer and his associates at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
They tried to develop methods for inducing an OBE in volunteer subjects in
the laboratory and then to test their ESP. One can understand the potential
advantages of such a program. If it were possible to take a volunteer and
give him an OBE under controlled conditions, when and where you wanted it,
half the problems of OBE research would be solved. It would be possible to
test hypotheses about the OBE so much more quickly and easily, but alas,
this approach turned to be fraught with various problems.
First Palmer and Vassar [PV74a, b] developed an induction technique based on
traditional ideas of what conditions are conducive to the OBE. Using four
different groups of subjects in three stages, the method was modified to
incorporate different techniques for muscular relaxation and disorientation.
Each subject was brought into the laboratory and the experiment was
explained to him. He was then taken into an inner room to lie on a
comfortable reclining chair and told that a target picture would be placed
on a table in the outer room.
The stage of the induction consisted of nearly fifteen minutes of
progressive muscular relaxation with the subject being asked to heard a
pulsating tone both through headphones and speakers which served to
eliminate extraneous noises and produce a disorientating effect. At the
same time he looked into a rotating red and green spiral lit by a flashing
light; this stage lasted a little under ten minutes. In the final stage he
was asked to imagine leaving the chair and floating into the outer room to
look at the target, but here several variations were introduced. Some
subjects were guided through the whole process by taped instructions while
other were simply allowed to keep watching the spiral while they imagined it
for themselves. For some the spiral was also only imagined and for some
there was an extra stage of imagining the target.
When the procedure was over the subject filled in a questionnaire about his
experiences in the experiment and completed an imaginary test (a shortened
form of the Betts QMI). Then five pictures were placed before him. One was
the target, but neither he nor the experimenter with him knew which it was.
When he had rated each of the pictures on a 1 to 30 scale, the other
experimenter was called in to say which was the target.
One of the questions asked was, 'Did you at any time during the experiment
have the feeling that you were literally outside of your physical body?' Of
50 subject asked this question 21, or 42%, answered 'yes.' As for the
scores on the targets, overall scores were not significally different from
chance expectation. When the scores were compared for the 21 OBEers and the
others there was no significant difference between them. The OBEers did get
significantly fewer hits than expected by chance, but this result difficult
to interpret.
Palmer and Lieberman [PL75a, b] took the techniques a stage further. Forty
subjects were tested, but this time they had a visual ganzfeld: that is,
half ping-pong balls were fixed over their eyes and a light was shone on
them so as to produce a homogenous visual field. Half the subjects were
given an 'active set' by being asked to leave their bodies and travel to the
other room to see the target, while the other half were given a 'passive
set' being asked only to allow imagery to flow freely in their mind.
As expected more of the 'active' subjects reported having felt out of their
bodies: 13 out of 20 as opposed to only 4 in the passive condition. The
active subjects also reported more vivid imagery and more effort expended in
trying to see the target, but when it came to the ESP scores both groups
were found to have scores close to chance expectation and there were no
significant differences between them. However, those subjects who reported
OBEs did do better than the others and significantly so. This result is
quite different from the previous ones and is the opposite of what Palmer
and Lieberman predicted, but it is what one would expect on the hypothesis
that having an OBE facilitates ESP.
Palmer and Lieverman put forward an interesting suggestion as to why more
subjects in the active condition should report OBEs. Their idea is related
to Schachter's theory of emotions, which has been very influential in
psychology. This theory suggests that a person experiencing any emotion
first feels the physiological effects of arousal, including such things as
slight sweating, increased heart rate, tingling feelings, and so on, and
then labels this feeling according to the situation as either 'anger,'
'passionate love,' 'fear' or whatever. In the case of these experiments the
subject feels unusual sensations arising from the induction and then labels
them according to his instructions. If he were told to imagine leaving his
body and traveling another room he might interpret his feelings as those of
leaving the body. Of course this suggestion has far wider implications for
understanding the OBE than those relating to the evaluation of the results
of these experiments.
In the next experiment Palmer and Lieberman tested 40 more subjects,
incorporating suggestions from Robert Monroe's methods for inducing OBEs.
The was no ganzfeld and instead of sitting in a chair the subjects lay on
beds, sometimes with a vibrator attached to the springs. This time time 21
subjects reported OBEs; and, interestingly, these score higher on the Barber
suggestibility scale, but they did not have better ESP scores.
In the final experiment in this series 40 more subjects were tested, 20 with
ganzfeld and 20 were just told to close their eyes [Pal79a]. This time 13
in each group claimed to have had on OBE, but whether they did or not was
not related to their ESP scores. This time EEG recording was also used, but
it showed no differences related to the reported OBEs. All in all it seems
that these experiments were successful in helping subjects to have an
experience which they labelled as out of the body, but not in getting
improved ESP scores or in finding an OBE state identifiable by EEG.
In an experiment designed to look at the effect of religious belief on
susceptibility to OBEs, Smith and Irwin [SI81] tried to induce OBEs in two
groups of students differing in their concern with religious affairs and
human immortality. The induction was similar to that already described, but
in addition the subjects were given an 'OBE-ness' questionnaire and were
asked to try to 'see' two targets in an adjacent room. Later their
impressions were given a veridicality score for resemblance to the targets.
No differences between the groups were found for either OBE-ness or
veridicality, but there was a highly significant correlation between OBE-
ness and veridicality. This result implies that the more OBE-like the
experience, the better the ESP.
All these experiments were aimed at finding out whether subjects could see a
distant target during an OBE. Although the experimental OBE may differ from
the spontaneous kind, a simple conclusion is possible from the experimental
studies. That is, OBE vision, if it occurs, is extremely poor.
How can the OBE be explained?
Most theories of the OBE either claim that something leaves the physical
body, or that it does not. Then within these two major categories there are
several different types of explanation, and there is perhaps a last
possibility; that any such distinction is meaningless and artificial. The
theories can be divided up as follows [Bla82]:
A. Something leaves the body.
1. Physical theories
2. Physical astral world theory
3. Mental astral world theory
B. Nothing leaves the body
1. Parapsychological theory
2. Psychological theories
C. Other
SOMETHING LEAVES THE BODY
Physical Theories
(a physical double travels in the physical world)"
First there is the kind of explanation which suggests that we each
have a second physical body which can separate from the usual one. T
here are two aspects to consider, one being the status and nature of
the double which travels, and the other being the status and nature o
f the world in which it travels. In this theory both are material an
d interact with the normal physical world. You may immediately dismi
ss this notion, saying that the double is non-physical.
To make this theory even worth considering it is necessary to assum
e that this double is composed of some 'finer' or more subtle materia
l that is invisible to the untrained eye. This kind of idea is somet
imes expressed in occult writings. The idea appears, for example, as
the 'etheric body' of the Theosophists. Objections to this type of
theory are numerous, and are made on both logical and empirical groun
ds. First, what could the double be made of? The possibilities seem
to range between a complete solid duplicate and a kind of misty and i
nsubstantial version. Another problem with this kind of double is it
s appearance. If all have a second body why does it appear to some a
s a blob or globe, to other as a flare, or light, and to yet others a
s a duplicate of the physical body? Muldoon and Carrington [MC29] wre
stled with this problem and so has Tart [Tar74b].
If the notion of a physical double is problematic, the notion that
it travels in the physical world is just as much so. First there are
the types of errors made in OB perception. These tend not to be the
sort of errors which might arise from a poor perceptual system, but
seem often to be fabricated error, or additions, as well as omissions
. Then sometimes the OB world is responsive to thought, just as in a
dream the scenery can change if the person imagines it changing; and
lastly, there is the fact that many OBEs merge into other kinds of e
xperience. The OBEer may find himself seeing places such as never we
re on earth, or he may meet strange monsters, religious figures or ca
ricature animals. All these features of the OBE make it harder to se
e the OB world as the physical world at all, and lead one to the conc
lusion that the OB world is more like a world of thoughts.
Physical Astral World Theory
(a non-physical double travels in the physical world)"
Many theories have suggested that the double is not physical but no
n- physical, even though it travels in the physical world. Many occu
ltists believe there to be a whole range of non-physical worlds of di
ffering qualities. Let us look at some examples of this sort of theo
ry to try to find out what is meant by it. Tart [Tar74b, 78] refers
to it as the 'natural' explanation. He describes this theory of the
OBE as follows '... in effect there is no need to explain it; it is
just what it seems to be. Man has a non-physical soul of some sort th
at is capable, under certain conditions, of leaving the physical seat
of consciousness. While it is like an ordinary physical body in som
e ways, it is not subject to most of the physical laws of space and t
ime and so is able to travel at will.'
The 'theta aspect' has been mentioned in connection with detection
experiments. Morris et. al. [MHJHR78] explain that '... the OBE may
be more than a special psi-conductive state; they hold that it may in
fact be evidence of an aspect of the self which is capable of surviv
ing bodily death. For convenience, such a hypothetical aspect of the
self will hereafter be referred to as a Theta Aspect (T.A.).' Accord
ing to Osis and Mitchell [OM77] it is possible that '... some part of
the personality is temporarily out of the body,' and many occult the
ories involve a non- physical astral double rather than a physical on
e.
Blackmore criticizes this view [Bla82]. She claims if the 'soul' i
s to interact with the objects of the physical world so as to perceiv
e them then it should not only be detectable, but all the other probl
ems of previous theories arise. On the other hand, if this 'soul' do
es not interact with the physical, then it cannot possibly do what is
expected of it in this theory, namely travel in the physical world.
She sees no escape from the dilemma. Moreover, she claims there is
already evidence that what is seen in an OBE is not, in any case, the
physical world.
Mental Astral World Theory
(a non-physical double travels in a non-physical, but 'objective,'
astral world)
Each of the theories presented thus far support a conclusion that O
BEs do not take place in the physical world at all, but in a thought-
created or mental world. Each of the next three types of theory star
t from this premise, but they are very different and lead to totally
different conceptions of the experience.
The term 'mental world' could mean several different things. It co
uld mean the purely private world created by each of us in our thinki
ng. One possibility is that there is another world (or worlds) which
is mental but is in some sense shared, or objective and in which we
can all travel if we attain certain states of consciousness. The imp
ortant question now becomes whether the OB world is peculiar to each
individual, or shared and accessible to all.
Occultists have suggested that there is a shared thought world. Th
ere are many other versions of this kind of theory. The pertinent fe
atures of this idea are that there is a non-physical OB world which i
s accessible by thought, that it is manipulable by thought, and that
it is the product of the mind of more than just one person.
Tart [74b, 78], as one of his five theories of the OBE, suggests wh
at he calls the 'mentally-manipulatable-state explanation.' He raise
s here the familiar problem of, as he puts it 'where the pajamas come
from.' That is, if the OBE involves the separation of a 'spirit' or
'soul' we have to include the possibility of spiritual dinner jackets
and tie pins. Of course any theory which postulates 'thought create
d' world solves this problem. Tart therefore suggested that a non-ph
ysical second body travels in a non-physical world which is capable o
f being manipulated or changed by 'the conscious and non-conscious th
oughts and desires of the person whose second body is in that space.'
In 1951 Muldoon and Carrington had come to a similar conclusion [MC
51]. Muldoon states '... one thing is clear to me -- the clothing of
the phantom is created, and is not a counterpart of the physical clot
hing.' Through his observations he came to the conclusion that 'Thou
ght creates in the astral, ... In fact the whole astral world is gove
rned by thought.' But he did not mean it was a private world of thoug
hts.
Also relevant here is the occult notion of thought forms. Theosoph
ists Besant and Leadbeater describe the creation of thought forms by
the mental and desire bodies, and their manifestations as floating fo
rms in the mental and astral planes. All physical objects are suppos
ed to have their astral counterparts and so when traveling in the ast
ral one sees a mixture of the astral forms of physical things and tho
ught created, or purely astral, entities.
There are other versions of a similar idea. For example Whiteman q
uestions the 'one-space theory' of OBEs [Whi75], and Poynton follow h
im suggesting '... what is described is not the physical world as act
ualized by the senses of the physical body, but a copy, more or less
exact, of the physical world' [Poy75]. Rogo [Rog78b] suggests that t
he OBE takes place in a non-physical duplicate world which is just as
'real' to the OBEer as our world is to us.
The idea of shared thought world, attractive as it is, has some ser
ious problems. The first problem relates to how the thoughts of diff
erent people could be combined together to create an astral world and
the second problem concerns the storage of ideas. The idea that tho
ughts can persist independently of the brain has been a cornerstone o
f many occult theories, but also parapsychologists have used a simila
r idea to try to explain ESP.
According to Blackmore [Bla82] the problem is essentially one of co
ding. We know that when a person remembers something he has first pro
cessed the incoming information, thought about it, structured it, and
turned it into a manageable form using some sort of code. We presum
e that the information persists in this form until needed when the pe
rson can use the same coding system to retrieve it and use it. Even
if we don't understand the details of how this system works, there is
in principle no problem for one person because he uses the same syst
em both in storing the material and retrieving it. But if thoughts a
re stored in the astral world, then we have to say that one person ca
n store them there and another can get them out again. And that other
person may have entirely different ways of coding information. So h
ow can these thoughts in the astral possibly make sense to him?
NOTHING LEAVES THE BODY
Parapsychological Theory
(imagination plus ESP)
The OBE might involve only imaginary traveling in a private imagina
ry world. According to this type of theory, nothing leaves the body
in an OBE. The advantage of such a theory is that it avoids all the
problems of the previous ones since it involves no astral worlds and
other bodies. Certain parapsychologists have tried to incorporate the
evidence that ESP occurs during OBEs by suggesting that the OBE is '
imagination plus ESP' or PK. For example, one of Tarts's five theorie
s is the 'hallucination-plus- psi explanation.' According to this th
eory, 'For those cases of OBEs in which veridical information about d
istant events is obtained, it is postulated that ESP, which is well p
roved, works on a nonconscious level, and this information is used by
the subconscious mind to arrange the hallucinatory or dream scene so
that it corresponds to the reality scene' [Tar78].
Osis [Osi75] contrasts his 'ecsomatic hypothesis' with 'traveling f
antasy plus ESP' and Morris [MHJHR78] compares the theory that 'some
tangible aspect of self can expand beyond the body' with what he call
the 'psi- favorable state' theory. In parapsychology many states ha
ve been thought to be conducive to ESP. They include relaxation, the
use of ganzfeld or unpatterned stimulation, and dreaming. There are
many reasons why an OBE might be thought of as a psi-conductive stat
e. Palmer suggested that it might induce attitudes and expectations
consistent with psi, thereby facilitating its occurrence [Pal74].
This sort of theory is not satisfying. It appears to avoid all the
previous problems and yet to be able to cope with the paranormal asp
ects of the experience. According to Blackmore 'Calling the OBE imag
ination or hallucination tells us very little, and adding the words '
plus ESP' adds nothing. We know little enough about ESP. It is defi
ned negatively, and we cannot stop and start it or control it in any
way.'
Psychological Theories
This theory amounts to the statement that all the details of the OB
E are to be accounted for in psychological terms. Nothing leaves the
body in an OBE, the astral body and astral world are products of the
imagination and the OBE itself provides no hope for survival. Osis
has called the followers of such theories 'nothing but-ers,' reducing
the OBE to 'nothing but a psychopathological oddity' [Osi81].
Among psychological approaches there have been psychoanalytic inter
pretations, analogies between the 'tunnel' and the birth experience;
the creation of the double has been seen as an act of narcissism or a
s a way of denying the inevitable mortality of the human body. Then
there have been theories which treat the near-death experience as a f
orm of depersonalization or regression to primitive modes of thinking
, and those which treat it as involving an archetype.
John Palmer used a mixture of psychological and psychoanalytical co
ncepts in his account [Pal78a]. He made the crucial point that the O
BE is neither potentially nor actually a psychic phenomenon. An OBE
may be associated with psychic events but the experience itself, just
like any other experience, is not the kind of thing which can be eit
her psychic or not. He went on to suggest that the OBE almost always
occurs in a hypnagogic state. Within this state it is triggered by a
change in the person's body concept which results from a reduction o
r other change in proprioceptive stimulation. This change then threa
tens the self concept and the threat activates deep unconscious proce
sses. These processes try to re-establish the person's sense of indi
vidual identity as quickly and economically as possible in a way that
follows the laws of the Freudian primary process. According to Palme
r it is this attempt to regain identity which constitutes the OBE.
Since the whole purpose of the OBE is to avoid a threat, the person
will usually remain unaware of that threat and of the change in body
image which precipitated it. However, Palmer adds that it is possib
le, with practice, to gain ego-control over the primary process activ
ity. Of course the OBE is, at best, only a partial solution to the t
hreat and both ego and primary process strive to regain the normal bo
dy concept. As soon as they succeed the OBE ends. For Palmer any ps
ychic abilities which manifest themselves during an OBE do so more be
cause of the hypnagogic state than because anything leaves the body.
This theory has much in its favor. It has no need of astral bodies
or other worlds and so avoids all the problems of the earlier theori
es. It makes sense of the situations in which the OBE occurs, and th
e way it varies with the situation, and it relates the OBE to other e
xperiences. However, the theory is not without its own problems. It
depends heavily on the idea that the OBE is a means of avoiding a thr
eat to the integrity of the individual and the anxiety which such a t
hreat would arouse. But it is not clear that the OBE would not provi
de an even greater threat than the original change in body concepts.
Sometimes OBEers are terrified that they will not be able to 'get ba
ck in' which is surely also a threat.
Susan Blackmore [Bla82] bases her theory on the claim that the evid
ence of paranormal events during the OBE is limited and unconvincing.
She therefore asserts that the claims for ESP and PK in OBEs are no
t impossible but there is actually not very much evidence which has t
o be 'explained away' in this fashion. Blackmore suggests that the O
BE is best seen as an altered state of consciousness (ASC) and is bes
t understood in relation to other ASCs. Everything perceived in an OB
E is a product of memory and imagination, and during the OBE one's ow
n imagination is more vividly experienced than it is in everyday life
. In other words the experience is a kind of privileged peek into th
e contents of one's own mind.
Blackmore suggests that in the case of the OBE the following are ne
cessary: vivid and detailed imagery; low reality testing so that memo
ries and images may seems 'real'; sensory input from the body reduced
or not attended to; awareness and logical thinking maintained. She
shows how these prerequisites can lead to an altered state of which o
ne form is the semi- stable OBE and indicates related states, such as
lucid dreaming, and shows how experience can change into others when
conditions, or ways or thinking, change.
This theory accounts adequately for cases of so-called traveling cl
airvoyance, where the subject does not necessarily see his body, but
is aware of a distant scene. It accounts less well for cases of cons
cious projection, where the subjects feels himself to be at a distant
location and is actually perceived by a person at that location. It
also underestimates the veridical aspect of perception in cases wher
e there is no apparent distortion by the imagination, in other words
when the scene viewed from another point of space corresponds exactly
with what one might expect to observe from that point; for instance
a room seen from the vantage point of the ceiling. The question of p
erceptual distortion is related to the degree of interference by the
imagination: the greater the imaginative element, the less veridical
the perception of the place.
Stephen LaBerge describes a theory in which OBEs occur when people
lose input from their sense organs, as happens at the onset of sleep,
while retaining consciousness [LL91]. This combination of events is
especially likely when a person passes directly from waking into REM
sleep. In both states the mind is alert and active, but in waking i
t is processing sensory input from the outside world, while in dreami
ng it is creating a mental model independent of sensory input. This
model includes a body. When dreaming, we generally experience oursel
ves in a body much like the 'real' one, because that is what we are u
sed to. However, our internal senses reside in the physical body, wh
ich when we are awake inform us about our position in space and about
the movement of our limbs. This information is cut off in REM sleep
. Therefore, we can dream of doing all kinds of things with our drea
m bodies -- flying, dancing, running from monsters, being dismembered
-- all while our physical bodies lie safely in bed.
During a WILD, or sleep paralysis, the awake and alert mind keeps u
p its good work of showing us the world it expects is out there -- al
though it can no longer sense it. So, then we are in a mental dream
world. Possibly we feel the cessation of the sensation of gravity as
that part of sensory input shuts down, and then feel that we are sud
denly lighter and float up, rising from the place where we know our r
eal body to be lying still. The room around us looks about the same
as it would if we were awake, because such in image represents our br
ain's best guess about where we are. If we did not know that we had
just fallen asleep, we might well think that we were awake, still in
touch with the physical world, and that something mighty strange was
happening -- a departure of the mind from the physical body.
The unusual feeling of leaving the body is exciting and alarming.
This, combined with the realistic imagery of the bedroom is enough to
account for the conviction of many OBE experients' that 'it was too
real to be a dream.' Dreams, too, can be astonishingly real, especial
ly if you are attending to their realness. Usually, we pass through
our dreams without thinking much about them, and upon awakening remem
ber little of them. Hence, they seem 'unreal.' But waking life is al
so like that -- our memory for a typical, mundane day is flat and lac
king in detail. It is only the novel, exciting, or frightening event
s that leave vivid impressions. If we stop what we are doing, we can
look around and say, 'Yes, this world looks solid and real.' But, if
you look back and try to recall, for instance, brushing your teeth t
his morning, your memory is likely to be vague and not very life-like
. Contrast this kind of event to a past event that excited or alarme
d you, which is likely to seem much more 'real' in retrospect.
OTHER APPROACHES
Perhaps all the distinctions and problems are artificial, perhaps t
he mind is neither 'in' nor 'out' of the body. Grosso argues the pos
sibility [Gro81] that one is always 'out' and in an OBE just becomes
conscious of that fact. Should the distinction between normal and pa
ranormal then be dropped?
Let us consider the state of affair that is considered normal: the
'in-the- body' experience. What does it mean to be in a body? LaBer
ge [LL91] argues that saying that one is in a body implies that the s
elf is an object with definite borders capable of being contained by
the boundaries of another object -- the physical body. However, we d
o not have any evidence that the self is such a concrete thing. What
we think of as 'out-of-body' in an OBE is the experience of the self
. This experience of being 'in' a body is normally based on perceptu
al input from the senses of both the world external to the body and t
he processes within the body. These things give us a sense of locali
zation of the self in space. However, it is the body, and its sense
organs, that occupy a specific locus, not the self. The self is not t
he body or the brain. If we think that the self is a product of brai
n function, even this does not make it reasonable to state that the s
elf is in the brain -- is the meaning contained in these words in thi
s page? It may not make any sense on an objective level to say that t
he self is anywhere. Rather, the self is where it feels itself to be
. Its location is purely subjective and derived from input from the
sensory organs.
Putting aside the question of the essential nature of the self, per
ception is undeniably a phenomenon tied to brain function. So, when
we find ourselves experiencing a world that seems much like the one w
e are used to perceiving with our usual equipment -- eyes, ears, etc
., all things linked to our brains, it would be logical to assume tha
t it is our usual brain creating the experience. And, if we were to
really leave our bodies -- severing all connection with them -- it wo
uld be illogical to assume that we would see the world in the same wa
y. Therefore, LaBerge points out, although no amount of contradictor
y evidence can rule out the possibility of a real 'out of body experi
ence,' in which an individual exists in some form entirely independen
t of the body, it is highly unlikely that such a form would utilize p
erceptual systems identical to those of the physical human form.
Spiritual teachings tell us that we have a reality beyond that of t
his world. LaBerge concludes that the OBE may not be, as it is easil
y interpreted, a literal separation of the soul from the crude physic
al body, but it is an indication of the vastness of the potential tha
t lies wholly within our minds. 'The worlds we create in dreams and
OBEs are as real as this one, and yet hold infinitely more variety.
How much more exhilarating to be "out-of-body" in a world where the o
nly limit is the imagination than to be in the physical world in a po
werless body of ether! Freed of the constraints imposed by physical
life, expanded by awareness that limits can be transcended, who knows
what we could be, or become?' [LL91].
Out-of-Body Tools
Most people taking part in discussions of OBEs seem primarily interested in
developing and ability to do so themselves and to learn to control the
experience. Aids to people wanting to develop such abilities, which include
books, audio tapes which are claimed to assist in the process, and training
programs are available from:
Monroe Institute
Route 1, Box 175
Faber, Virginia 22938-9749
U.S.A.
Phone: 804-361-1252
Product Orders: 800-541-2488
References
[Bla82] Blackmore, S. J. Beyond the Body: an Investigation of Out-of-
Body Experiences (London: Heinemann, 1982)
[Bla84] ---. 'A postal survey of OBEs and other experiences' (Journal
of the Society for Psychical Research, 1984, 52, pp. 227-244)
[Bla88] ---. 'A Theory of lucid dreams and OBEs' in Conscious Mind,
Sleeping Brain (ed. Gackenbach, J. and LaBerge, S.: New York:
Plenum: 1988, pp. 373-387)
[Bla91] ---. 'Lucid Dreaming: Awake in Your Sleep?' (Skeptical
Inquirer, 1991, 15, pp. 362-370)
[Bre71] Brennan, J. H. Astral Doorways (Wellingborough, Northants:
Aquarian Press, 1971)
[Bro62] Broad, C. D. Lectures on Psychical Research (London: Routledge
and Kegan Paul, 1962)
[Con72] Conway, D. Magic: An Occult Primer (London: Jonathan Cape,
1972, and Mayflower Books, St. Albans, 1974)
[Cro61] Crookall, R. The Study and Practice of Astral Projection
(London: Aquarian Press, 1961)
[Cro63] ---. 'Only Psychological Fact?' (Light, 1963, 83, pp. 171-182)
[Cro64a] ---. More Astral Projections (London: Aquarian Press, 1964)
[Cro64b] ---. The Techniques of Astral Projection: Denouement After
Fifty Years (London: Aquarian Press, 1964)
[Cro69a] ---. The Interpretation of Cosmic and Mystical Experiences
(London: James Clarke & Co., 1969)
[Cro69b] ---. The Mechanisms of Astral Projection: Denouement After
Seventy Years (Moradabad, India: Darshana International, 1969)
[Cro70a] ---. The Jung-Jaffe View of Out-of-the-Body Experiences (World
Fellowship Press, 1970)
[Cro70b] ---. Out-of-the-Body Experiences (New York: University Books,
1970)
[Cro78] ---. What Happens When You Die (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe,
1978)
[Eas62] Eastman, M. 'Out-of-the-Body Experiences' (Proceedings of the
Society for Psychical Research, 1962, 53, pp. 227-309)
[Eva60] Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Tibetan Book of the Dead (London:
Oxford University Press, 1960)
[Far76] Faraday, A. The dream game (Harmondsworth, England: Penguin,
1976)
[Fox62] Fox, O. Astral Projection (New York: University Books Inc.,
1962)
[Gau82] Gauld, A. Mediumship and Survival: A Century of Investigations
(London: Heinemann, 1982)
[Gay74] Gaynor, F. Dictionary of Mysticism (London: Wildwood House,
1974)
[GB89] Gackenbach, J. and Bosveld, J. Control Your Dreams (New York:
Harper & Row, 1989)
[GL88] Gackenbach, J. and LaBerge, S. eds. Conscious Mind, Sleeping
Brain (New York: Plenum, 1988)
[Gla74] Glaskin, G. M. Windows of the Mind: The Christos Experience
(London: Wildwood, 1974)
[Gli89] Glicksohn, J. 'The structure of subjective experience:
Interdependencies along the sleep-wakefulness continuum'
(Journal of Mental Imagery, 1989, 13, pp. 99-106)
[GMF86] Gurney, E., Myers, F. W. H. and Podmore, F. Phantasms of the
Living (2 Vols. London: Trubner & Co., 1886)
[Gre66] Green, C. E. 'Spontaneous "Paranormal" Experiences in Relation
to Sex and Academic Background' (Journal of the Society for
Psychical Research, 1966, 43, pp. 357-363)
[Gre67] ---. 'Ecsomatic Experiences and Related Phenomena' (Journal of
the Society for Psychical Research, 1967, 44, pp. 111-131)
[Gre68a] ---. Out-of-the-Body Experiences (London: Hamish Hamilton,
1968)
[Gre68b] ---. Lucid Dreams (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1968)
[Gro81] Grosso, M. 'Toward an Explanation of Near-Death Phenomena'
(Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 1981,
75, pp. 37-60)
[GT84] Gabbard, G. O. and Twemlow, S. W. With the eyes of the mind
(New York: Praeger, 1984)
[Har54] Hart, H. 'ESP Projection: Spontaneous Cases and the Experimental
Method' (Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research,
1954, 48, pp. 121-146)
[Har56] ---. 'Six Theories about Apparations' (Proceedings of the
Society for Physical Research, 1953-6, 50, pp. 153-239)
[Hea78] Hearne, K. M. T. Lucid Dreams: An Electrophysiological and
Psychological Study (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of
Liverpool, 1978)
[Hea90] ---. The Dream Machine (Northants: Aquarian, 1990)
[HGRLJ76] Haraldson, E., Gudmundsdottir, A., Ragnarsson, A., Loftsson, J.
and Jonsson, S. 'National Survey of Psychical Experiences and
Attitudes Towards the Paranormal in Iceland' in Research in
Parapsychology 1976 (Morris, J. D., Roll, W. G. and Morris,
R. L. eds. Metuchen, N. J.: Scarecrow Press: 1977, pp. 182-186)
[HJH74] Hartwell, J., Janis, J. and Harary, S. B. 'A Study of the
Physiological Variables Associated with Out-of-Body
Experiences' (in Research in Parapsychology 1974, Morris,
J. D., Roll, W. G. and Morris, R. L. eds. Metuchen, N. J.:
Scarecrow Press 1975, pp. 127-129)
[Hon79] Honegger, B. 'Correspondence' (Parapsychology Review, 1979,
10, pp. 24-26)
[Irw80] Irwin, H. J. 'Out of the Body Down Under: Some Cognitive
Characteristics of Australian Students Reporting OOBEs'
(Journal of the Society for Physical Research, 1980, 50, pp.
448-459)
[Irw81a] ---. Letter to the Editor (Journal of the Society for
Psychical Research, 1981, 51, pp. 118-120)
[Irw81b] ---. 'Some Psychological Dimensions of the Out-of-Body
Experience' (Parapsychology Review, 1981, 12, No. 4, pp. 1-6)
[Irw88] ---. 'Out-of-Body Experiences and Dream Lucidity: Empirical
Perspectives' in Conscious Mind, Sleeping Brain (ed.
Gackenbach, J. and LaBerge, S.: New York: Plenum: 1988, pp.
353-371)
[JHHLM74] Janis, J., Hartwell, J., Harary, S. B., Levin, J. and Morris,
R. L. 'A description of the Physiological Variables Connected
with an Out-of-Body Study' in Research in Parapsychology 1973,
Roll, W. G., Morris, R. L. and Morris, J. D., eds. (Metuchen,
N. J.: Scarecrow Press, 1974, pp. 36-37)
[LaB85] LaBerge, S. Lucid Dreaming (Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1985)
[LL91] LaBerge, S. and Levitan, L. 'Other Worlds: Out-of-Body
Experiences and Lucid Dreams' (NightLight newsletter, 1991)
[MC29] Muldoon, S. and Carrington, H. The Projection of the Astral
Body (London: Rider & Co., 1929)
[MC51] ---. The Phenomena of Astral Projection (London: Rider & Co.,
1951)
[MHJHR78] Morris, R. L., Harary, S. B., Janis, J., Hartwell, J. and Roll,
W. G. 'Studies of Communication During Out-of-Body
Experiences' (Journal of the American Society for Psychical
Research, 1978, 72, pp. 1-22)
[Mit73] Mitchell, J. 'Out-of-the-Body vision' (Psychic, 1973, 4. Also
in Rogo, D. S., ed. Mind Beyond the Body, New York: Penguin,
1978, pp. 154-161)
[Mon71] Monroe, R. A. Journeys Out of the Body (New York: Doubleday,
1971)
[Moo75] Moody, R. A. Life after Life (Covinda, G. A.: Mockingbird,
1975, and Bantam, 1976)
[Moo77] ---. Reflections on Life after Life (New York: Mockingbird,
1977)
[Mor73] Morris, R. L. 'The Use of Detector for Out-of-Body
Experiences' (in Research in Parapsychology 1973, Roll, W. G.,
Morris, R. L. and Morris, J. D. eds. Metuchen, N. J.: Scarecrow
Press, 1974, pp. 114-116)
[Mye03] Myers, F. W. H. Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily
Death (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1903)
[NK76] Noyes, R. and Kletti, R. 'Depersonalisation in the Face of
Life-threatening Danger: A Description' (Psychiatry, 1976, 39,
pp. 19-27)
[Noy72] Noyes, R. 'The Experience of Dying' (Psychiatry, 1972, 35, pp.
174-184)
[OM77] Osis, K. and Mitchell, J. L. 'Psysiological Correlates of
Reported Out-of-Body Experiences' (Journal of the Society for
Psychical Research, 1977, 49, pp. 525-536)
[Oph61] Ophiel. The Art and Practice of Astral Projection (New York:
Samuel Weiser, 1961)
[Osi73] Osis, K. 'Perspectives for Out-of-Body Research' (in Research
in Parapsychology 1973, Roll, W. G., Morris, R. L. and Morris,
J. D. eds. Metuchen, N. J.: Scarecrow Press, 1974, pp. 110-113)
[Osi75] ---. 'Perceptual Experiments on Out-of-Body Experiences' (in
Research in Parapsychology 1974, Morris, J. D., Roll, W. G. and
Morris, R. L. eds. Metuchen, N. J.: Scarecrow Press, 1975, pp.
53-55)
[Osi81] ---. 'Out-of-the-Body Experiences: A Personal View' (Psi News,
1981, 4, No. 3)
[Pal74] Palmer, J. 'Some New Directions for Research' (in Research in
Parapsychology 1973, Roll, W. G., Morris, R. L. and Morris,
J. D. eds. Metuchen, N. J.: Scarecrow Press, 1974, pp. 107-110)
[Pal78a] ---. 'The Out-of-Body Experience: A Psychological Theory'
(Parapsychology Review, 1978, 9, pp. 19-22)
[Pal79a] ---. 'ESP and Out-of-Body Experiences: EEG Correlates' (in
Research in Parapsychology 1978, Roll, W. G. ed. Metuchen,
N. J.: Scarecrow Press, 1979, p. 135-138)
[Pal79b] ---. 'A Community Mail Survey of Psychic Experiences' (Journal
of the American Society for Psychical Research, 1979, 73, pp.
221-252)
[PD75] Palmer, J. and Dennis, M. 'A Community Mail Survey of Psychic
Experiences' (in Research in Parapsychology 1974, Morris,
J. D., Roll, W. G. and Morris, R. L. eds. Metuchen, N. J.:
Scarecrow Press, 1975, pp. 130-133)
[PL75a] Palmer, J. and Lieberman, R. 'ESP and Out-of-Body Experiences:
The Effect of Psychological Set' (in Research in Parapsychology
1974, Morris, J. D., Roll, W. G. and Morris, R. L. eds.
Metuchen, N. J.: Scarecrow Press, 1975, pp. 122-127)
[PL75b] ---. 'The Influence of Psychological Set on ESP and Out-of-
Body Experiences' (Journal of the American Society for
Psychological Research, 1975, 69, pp. 193-214)
[PL76] ---. 'ESP and Out-of-Body Experiences: A Further Study' (in
Research in Parapsychology 1975, Morris, J. D., Roll, W. G. and
Morris, R. L. eds. Metuchen, N. J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976, pp.
102-106)
[Poy75] Poynton, J. C. 'Results of an Out-of-the-Body Survey' (in
Parapsychology in South Africa, Poynton, J. C. ed.
Johannesburg: South African Society for Psychical Research,
1975)
[PV74a] Palmer, J. and Vassar, C. 'Toward Experimental Induction of
the Out-of-the-Body Experience' (in Research in Parapsychology
1973, Roll, W. G., Morris, R. L. and Morris, J. D. eds.
Metuchen, N. J.: Scarecrow Press, 1974, pp. 38-41)
[PV74b] ---. 'ESP and Out-of-the-Body Experiences: An Exploratory
Study' (Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research,
1974, 68, pp. 257-280)
[Raw78] Rawlings, M. Beyond Death's Door (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas
Nelson Co., 1978)
[Rin79] Ring, K. 'Further Studies of the Near-Death Experience'
(Theta, 1979, 7, pp. 1-3)
[Rin80] ---. Life at Death (New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan,
1980)
[Rog78b] Rogo, D. S. 'The Out-of-Body Experiences: Some Personal Views
and Reflections' (in Rogo, D. S. ed. Mind Beyond the Body, New
York: Penguin, 1978, pp. 349-365)
[Rog78c] ---. 'Experiments with Blue Harary' (in Rogo, D. S. ed. Mind
Beyond the Body, New York: Penguin, 1978, pp. 170-92)
[Sab82] Sabom, M. Recollections of Death (London: Harper & Row, 1982)
[Sal82] Salley, R. D. 'REM Sleep Phenomena During Out-of-Body
Experiences' (Journal of the American Society for Psychical
Research, 1982, 76, pp. 157-165)
[She78] Sheils, D. 'A Cross-cultural Study of Beliefs in Out-of-the-
Body Experiences' (Journal of the Society for Psychical
Research, 1978, 49, pp. 697-741)
[SI81] Smith, P. and Irwin, H. 'Out-of-Body Experiences, Needs and the
Experimental Approach: A Laboratory Study' (Parapsychology
Review, 1981, pp. 65-75)
[Sie77] Siegel, R. K. 'Hallucinations' (Scientific American, 1977,
237, pp. 132-140)
[Smi65] Smith, S. The Enigma of Out-of-Body Travel (Garrett
Publications, 1965)
[Tar67] Tart, C. T. 'A Second Psychophysiological Study of Out-of-the-
Body Experiences in a Gifted Subject' (International Journal of
Parapsychology, 1967, 9, pp. 251-258)
[Tar68] ---. 'A Psychophysiological Study of Out-of-the-Body
Experiences in a Selected Subject' (Journal of the American
Society for Psychical Research, 1968, 62, pp. 3-27)
[Tar71] ---. On Being Stoned: A Psychological Study of Marijuana
Intoxication (Palo Alto, CA.: Science and Behaviour Books,
1971)
[Tar72a] ---. Introduction to Journeys Out-of-the-Body by R. Monroe
(London: Souvenir Press, 1972)
[Tar72b] ---. 'States of Consciousness and State-specific Sciences'
(Science, 1972, 176, pp. 1203-1210)
[Tar74a] ---. 'Some Methodological Problems in OOBE Research' (in
Research in Parapsychology 1973, Roll, W. G., Morris, R. L. and
Morris, J. D. eds. Metuchen, N. J.: Scarecrow Press, 1974, pp.
116-120)
[Tar74b] ---. 'Out-of-the-Body Experiences' (in Mitchell, E. ed.
Psychic Exploration, New York: G. P. Putnams Sons, 1974, pp.
349-373)
[Tar78] ---. 'Paranormal Theories About the Out-of-Body Experience'
(in Rogo, D. S. ed. Mind Beyond the Body, New York: Penguin,
1978, pp. 338-345)
[Tho83] Tholey, P. 'Techniques for Controlling and Manipulating Lucid
Dreams' (Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1983, 57, pp. 79-90)
[Van13] Van Eeden, F. 'A study of dreams' (Proceedings of the Society
for Psychical Research, 1913, 26, pp. 431-461)
[Whi75] Whiteman, J. H. M. 'The Scientific Evaluation of Out-of-the-
Body Experiences' (in J. C. Poynton ed. Parapsychology in South
Africa, Johannesburg: South African Society for Psychical
Research, 1975, pp. 95-108)
___________________________________
[IMAGE][45] kiwi@iis.ee.ethz.ch
*** References from this document ***
[orig] ftp://ftp.eskimo.com/u/d/delisle/OutOfBody/obe-faq.html
[45] ftp://ftp.eskimo.com/u/d/delisle/OutOfBody/obe.html